Well, obviously it's very hard to compare things like this across time, and be confident you're still comparing apples to apples. But for instance, the evidence

Well, obviously it's very hard to compare things like this across time, and be confident you're still comparing apples to apples. But for instance, the evidence seems fairly compelling that young people are experiencing more mental health issues now than in past decades. For instance, suicide rates are a pretty firm indicator of this problem. And in pretty much any one of those past decades, you can find similarly compelling "doom narratives" as those today. But it seems fewer people were following them "into the abyss" of death.