>>It started with the socialist-entitlement, single-payer, prison-like, and compulsory-use K-12 schooling that was forced upon the nation in the mid-1800 to early 1900s. These schools also fed the children a lukewarm and generic pap of Protestantism.<<
The 16th and 17th Amendments were the DIRECT CAUSE of all those things (and the timing matches yours — the opening of the 20th Century).
The ability for the Government to steal (wantonly, recklessly and with abandon) the fruits of a man’s labor and the complete and final emasculation of the States (beyond what The Civil War did to Amendments 9 and 10) were the source of all the evils you describe.
If by some magic the 16th and 17th Amendment were repealed tomorrow, by Tuesday, there would be a mass movement to have them reinstated. Why?
Answer: Because we have nation of voters trained to be comfortable accepting socialism and government compulsion by attending socialist-entitlement and compulsory attendance K-12 schools.
Answer: We have a nation of citizens who were trained in their government schools first to be lukewarm and generic in their worldview regarding God, and now are being forced to think and reason godlessly in the existing godless government schools. Since a religious vacuum is impossible we should not be surprised that vast swaths of our nation worship government as their redeemer and savior.
Children who attend government socialist-entitlement schools are at risk of learning that any mob powerful enough to give them tuition-free schooling is powerful enough to give them **lots** of free things. This was true in the mid-1800s, the early 1900s, and now.