Everything was normal until it wasn't, and if it wasn't back then, nobody else paid that much attention because that wasn't normal, so they hoped it went away.

Everything was normal until it wasn't, and if it wasn't back then, nobody else paid that much attention because that wasn't normal, so they hoped it went away. That is, our bias tends to be towards supporting and reproducing the norms we're familiar with. Acknowledging a problem with the norms is much harder than ignoring and dismissing an actual problem that contradicts them, because it's often a challenge to faith to resolve conflicts between closely-held values. It's the disruption to norms, not specific events, that leaves a pit in one's stomach. Here's what I suggest you do instead of looking for specific evidence of decline. Go read "Joe vs Elan School"[0]. Get angry and upset at the story, and then note that this is really a story that, while covering mostly the last few decades, has threads from as early as the 1950's, a decade where things were "normal" relative to now. Except, if the story is to believed, they weren't. They couldn't have been! And then...focus on virtue ethics rather than norms. Norms are exhausting, a perpetual "babies vs parents" game of shifting around boundaries and responsibilities such that some people(e.g. billionaires) can behave like children, while other groups must attend to and explain the child's actions - and that's how a place like Elan can exist. We can curse that darkness, but nobody has time to work out all the ways in which they could properly live better instead of succumbing to a norm; you have to lead with strength and hope others follow. [0] https://elan.school https://elan.school