I'm going to link you to a post that describes the causes and conditions of the current weltanschaung that might escape sociologists. It's not science, exactly, but I find it a good potential cause for all the social rot we're experiencing.

https://sh.itjust.works/post/67063299

From another, related angle, we're entering into some global chaos at the moment. The myth of perennial progress, holding our collective psyches together since the dawn of the Enlightenment/Industrial era, is falling apart. Scientific progress has stalled and, even if it hadn't, there is no spiritual sustenance to be drawn from examining ever smaller segments of space-time.

I've been reading about Gnosticism and alchemy, and apparently this is a recurring pattern in history. If you look at 1-2 AD Europe, you'll see much the same despair; the Roman Empire was falling apart, the future was uncertain, institutions were failing (and, I might add, internships (ie college) were incurring lifelong debt)... from that chaos we got the highly structured worldview of Christendom, but before that we have a lot of work that is more spritually resonant with the despair of today.

I'm reminded of that Yeats poem: Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.