Yes, they've gone soft. Although the toxin of socialism can strike most any community, I wonder if it becomes inevitable at a certain critical population density, or a certain level of government organization. I look at the US map of red and blue states, and see the blue in the areas of heavy population, and I wonder. When people were more self-sufficient---when they had to be---socialism was seen as the fraud it is. But when people depend on the government, and this they do where there are high concentrations of people---then socialism is seen as a possible solution, or at least an approach to some desirable goal, rather than a fraud.
If by some unimaginable contretemps, the British government collapsed utterly, I think that would separate wheat from chaff and serve as a healthy "reset" of the society.
And America is not much better, on the gangrenous blue edges of the property.
"And America is not much better, on the gangrenous blue edges of the property."
agreed.