world War 2 did not cause a breakdown of the family whatsoever. Heavens man! After World War 2 all the GIs wanted was a wife and to make as many babies as humanly possible. The 1950s were as family oriented as any decade in american history. Followed by a massive baby boom. And these were not bastard children either. The Baby Boomers were probably the last great generation for the cohesive conventional nuclear family. It is not until LBJs Great Society nanny-state programs took hold in the 1960s that the conventional nuclear family began to break down. It was the 60s hippies and liberal progressive do-gooders that destroyed the family. World War 2 had nothing to do with it.
Rather I'm saying that WWII created several conditions along with the damage necessary for us to do be willing to do it to ourselves. One thing leads to another.
For whatever reason or reasons, the children of the generation who fought in WWII turned out much differently than their parents had been when they went off to fight in the war. Something didn't get passed along from one generation to the next. Perhaps it was lost in the war.
Looking back in history, I think the war changed everything in the world but human nature and the actual rules the world runs by, and then, so did the peace and prosperity that followed it. I think we are nearing the end of that season and the beginning of another.
It appears that an enemy who couldn't defeat us in war has gotten us to defeat ourselves in peace by getting us to turn ourselves into them...starting with the children of the generation who beat them in war.
The breakdown in the family has been the key to our defeat and reprogramming, an effort begun long before WWII, btw.