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The rise of secularism probably is a factor. The social function of religion was to create a link between people and to regulate and control their coexistence. It provided a set of collective rituals, customs, festivities. Take that away and what remains is essentially the family unit and the market forces.

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> Take that away and what remains is essentially the family unit and the market forces.

Or what's left of them anyway.

Seems like you left zero-sum tribalism and perpetual consumerist distraction off of your list.

I think this might hint to one of the greater arguments for communism, which is functionally society as religion.

That being said, I don't feel for a second that religion is the only way to fill that hole practically. But it requires a society that both recognizes the need for that social cohesion and institutionalizes that which can maintain it. 2 weeks paid vacation HOA quarter acre with a picket fence and blacked out windows mainstream American culture is definitely not trying to accomplish that.

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