Most people are reactive, not proactive. Proactive people look at the big picture, search for facts instead of opinions, watch for trends in data and make deci

Most people are reactive, not proactive. Proactive people look at the big picture, search for facts instead of opinions, watch for trends in data and make decisions based on those. Reactive people just go with the flow until some big event happens, then maybe sometimes things change. Remember, civilization needs constant effort to maintain so by default things are getting slightly worse over time. If there's enough proactive people for upkeep, it stays the same or even gets better. If not, things keep getting worse until something sufficiently bad happens, then outrage follows and reactive people spring into action - e.g. protests or outright revolutions depending on how bad things were allowed to become. When things are good (or at least good enough) for a long time, less and less people see the need to be proactive...