For at least 4000 years we’d been successfully teaching children to read using phonics.
Suddenly in the middle of the 20th this became passe and had to be changed.
I doubt there’s anything more sinister here than theorists who want to make a name for themselves by developing “improved, modern” methods.
Yes, many seek comfort in this thought. If the damage lasted only 10 years and hurt 5,000,000 people, I’d want to agree...But the damage lasted 70+ years and hurt 50,000,000 people.