The evidence is reasonably convincing that the relaxation of the stigma of sexual promiscuity, and the consequences thereof, is more than just a rejection of a set of meaningless prudery. If you look at it, sexual promiscuity has been among the primary drivers for the growth of the nanny state.
There is good evidence to suggest that bastardy has more far-reaching effects than merely the lack of an inheritance, or ending up poor on welfare. It also leads to bad behavior of the sort that causes legislators to pass laws against guns, or to declare a "War on Drugs."
(One may safely assume that few of the nice boys who killed those two guys in Chicago has ever known their fathers in any familial sense. It's certainly true of a very high percentage of the prison population.)
One might well consider divorce to be a more subtle form of promiscuity -- and that has its own set of ill-effects on society.
Sexual promiscuity doesn't explain everything, of course. But it explains a lot.
In the sense that you are speaking of, you and I are in virtually complete agreement. This is certainly not an issue though between Conservatives and Libertarians. The ADC program deliberately undermined the American family; deliberately financed an increase in the population among the least employable, the least educable. The toll on our institutions, which has resulted from deliberately subsidizing having children out of wedlock, has already been staggering. (See How The Welfare State Works!)
It is noteworthy that not only did the Feds subsidize bastard births. A key part of the program was a stricture against local Welfare agencies continuing any stigma, at all, for such conduct. They deliberately outlawed the normal way Society instinctively protects itself!
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site