My wild-assed guess is that social media accelerated the underlying long-term trends. Bowling Alone is a popular book about the decline of "social capital" (co

My wild-assed guess is that social media accelerated the underlying long-term trends. Bowling Alone is a popular book about the decline of "social capital" (community), which is a fair intro to the topic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone IMHO, technological advances begets social upheaval and accelerating inequity are the root causes for the popular usual suspects (broadcast media, cars and suburbia, social media). Orthogonally, since Trumpism, I've been more open minded towards explanations rooted in reactionary populism (revanchism) and white racial animus.