If people stop having legal/religious marriages, but mostly end up in long term common law marriages (do you have that term in the UK?), I don't see that as a v

If people stop having legal/religious marriages, but mostly end up in long term common law marriages (do you have that term in the UK?), I don't see that as a very important difference. The quality of the relationship matters more than the label you attach to it. That's not really what I perceive the trend to be, though (here on the US side). It looks to me more like an unwillingness to permanently commit to another person at all, and an aversion to taking on the responsibilities of raising a family. The Atlantic article called Jacob a manchild, which is a term I don't think we had such a need for when I was growing up. (By the way I'm only early 40s myself--but boy do I feel out of step with the world these last few years.)