Prevailing attitudes and behavioral norms deteriorated. Being without pocket or purse renders a body harmless only in an environment where telling a branch of government to "Go fsck yourself" is realistically considered as an option. We and our ancestors have lived in a prosperous, peaceful society for centuries. We've become "nice" and "civilized", not to mention that generations have been indoctrinated by the schools that the feral government is the all-knowing, beneficent source of goodness and light. The MSM maintains a constant drumbeat not only on specific issues but casts any anti-government group as kooks and "extremists". Nice people who wear nice clothes and live in nice houses don't have defiance at the top of their list, so now all the judiciary has to do to tyrannize is fire up the word processor.
and how can it be fixed?
Tough question. Start by getting the feds out of schools, as they should be anyway. I've wondered for a long time where the conservative George Sorii are and why they aren't buying up media by the boatload. Branches of government in conservative hands can both help on specific issues and reeducate by using the "fsck yourself" method once in a while.
The foundation of Palin and Bush Derangement Syndrome