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The book Bowling Alone is about this trend of declining social capital and connection in the US, and was published in 2000. This is a modern phenomenon, which transcends any intensification during the last 18 months.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone

> because many of the functions that used to be performed by the family and community are now performed by businesses.

I could see that being true. Do you mean businesses like Facebook and Twitter with their substitution for socializing?

I fully agree with the rest of your post. If you're interested in the subject, I would suggest reading Robert Putnam's research on Social Capital. Bowling Alone is a good synthesis (but I'd personally pass on his other books, which lean more toward polemics).

Ever since about the 1960's-1970's, it has been a slow, gradual frog boiling of American culture, institutions, government, community, and society. Look at all the neighbors and people in public who refuse or don't interact with each other. This was not the case 40 years ago. American socialization with strangers and neighbors was entirely different. Americans barely acknowledge the presence of one-another apart from pointing out microaggressions, espousing conspiracy theories, or berating someone for "how so stupid they are for believing X." At some point, if people don't need or want each other, and don't benefit from the presence of one another, it stops being a civilization and starts being a prison colony where the inmates look to escape.

Morris Berman discussed it to a degree in 2000.

Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam (2000) hinted to it. Heck, there are countries now with restaurants that cater to solo diners. That seems really depressing.

The late Chalmers Johnson predicted it convincingly in 2006 and during a few interviews.

America: The Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges (2018).

When America Stopped Being Great: A History of the Present by Nick Bryant (2021).

Most civilizations tend to last an average of 250 years until corruption and other factors causes their effective collapse. I think there is often a combined gradual decline and more sudden decline into effective collapse when civilizations lose their "critical mass" to maintain basic infrastructure and services. There are numerous failed states in the world that perpetually operate on the edge of this condition. Healthy civilizations needs lofty aspirations that don't lead to insolvency.

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-08-10/four-reasons-c...