It goes even deeper than that. The Great Society programs and ‘adjustments’, as you say, have required higher taxes. In turn, those higher taxes have resulted in many stay at home moms entering the work force to help protect their families from a lower standard of living (and in many cases, just to survive financially).
Thus, more and more children have been raised without parental influence for most of the daytime hours. That, in turn, has resulted in many of the Bad Things we see in society today, because without that influence many have lost their moral bearings.
This 'Great Society' insanity has gone on for so long that the damage is impossible to repair. The result is a gigantic millstone around the neck of the segment of society that cares.
Our clueless, incapable Congress works overtime to prove that our founding fathers' experiment has now expired. It doesn't work because we have stuffed Congress with idiotic liberal pansies who are now able to put the finishing touches on our demise.
Solution?