The lack of fellowship between citizens is both a result and a cause of the decline of "third places", and is part of a large decline in civic life among Americ

The lack of fellowship between citizens is both a result and a cause of the decline of "third places", and is part of a large decline in civic life among Americans. People don't know or like the other citizens in their towns and cities; the cultural and class-education divides are enormous. They also lack the temerity to use law enforcement to clean up (trash-, dirt-, and behavior-wise) public spaces to reserve them for those seeking socializing without disruption, or to use the legal system to push back on car-centric design, or to use their money on creative aesthetics to make it nicer to be in public spaces.