Where we once valued and honored common sense, we now value faulty logic undermined by emotion and lack of interest or knowledge and based on "how things ought to be".
People live and act based upon their age/level of maturity and nations, being made up of people, also have a similar age/level of maturity.
Currently, I'd estimate that this country's level of maturity has been progressively regressed back to that of a 15 or 16 year old with an SSRI prescription, being raised in a single parent home.
It's a long way back from here.
The only hope would be the conservative capture