Maybe each generation needs a crisis ? It was usually wars in the past but its a pandemic now ? Something to tell to the next generations, just instead of dodging bombs its dodging an invisible danger ?
Not all crises are equal. This current one didn't really bring people together. And although I wasn't around to see it, it's hard to imagine 40% or whatever of the population in 1942 were all, "that guy in Germany isn't even so bad, in fact I don't think he even exists at all, I'm going to hoard aluminum and steel for personal use now."
That was mostly the case in 1939 though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Holocaust denial is a thing...
I think it actually did bring people together. In the UK at least there has been a noticeable change in the national atmosphere.
When the youngest generation has not known a period when there was NOT a war, something else needs to happen.
From what scientists are saying about the climate crisis, we are going to enter an era of continual crises unless major action is taken.