I agree, but I'd add that part of the issue may be the zeitgeist: the world is changing more quickly than some/many are able to process; there are (again) growing fears about the future, justified or not; the fear that it may just all end tomorrow - so why bother making long term investments in anything? You could even think of it as a kind of renewed undercurrent of subconscious eschatological feeling running through societies. Our popular culture reflects this (zombie/dystopian fiction becoming very mainstream is a salient example.) Another facet of this is "The Cheating Culture" - global hypercompetition coupled with the above leads to the taking of many shortcuts, and sometimes outright unethical or illegal behavior.
This too shall all likely pass, but for the meantime, we're probably just going to have to live with this culture and thinking, and hope that we continue to make good progress regardless (everything from artificial organs to self-driving cars are beoming reality while this is being typed, so there's plenty of hope underneath.) It still has negative affects (and is depressing), as the OP explains, though.
This too shall all likely pass, but for the meantime, we're probably just going to have to live with this culture and thinking, and hope that we continue to make good progress regardless (everything from artificial organs to self-driving cars are beoming reality while this is being typed, so there's plenty of hope underneath.) It still has negative affects (and is depressing), as the OP explains, though.