This “relabelling” of every personality that is a odd or dysfunctional as “autism” is a big part of this. It is used by parents and schools as a justification for being unable to reach a particularly difficult child. And it fuels financial interests that have sprung up to assist. The same thing of course happened with ADHD, where every wild boy not interested or able to focus in school was labelled as having a medical condition, which conveniently has a pharmaceutical solution that creates profits for industry and makes life easier for schools. Obviously, there are plenty of children with “real” autism and ADHD and they certainly need medical intervention. But the new, current problem is really in the momentum that accretes around legitimate diagnoses and sucks in all the kids on the margins and beyond. We live in a very weird world. Maybe the weird kids are the normal ones, IDK. But personally I do not think autism or ADHD are, as strictly medical phenomena, more widespread than previously.
Agree. In times past there were a myriad of diseases that simply went undiagnosed. People simply learned to live with them, or not.