The secret ingredient which has leached away is Christian faith, and I don’t mean just the easy peasy praise the Lord at convenience kind.
This looks like social Darwinism, the opposite evil from official government socialism. Churches could be a private factor in ameliorating the harm. This was a microcosm in which they could have stepped forward and it looks like they just failed.
That makes sense. People are being weakened by having their faith stripped from them. And they so often just don’t realize it. They are way too cool and modern for those fairy tales.
And the Church itself has been under assault and been weakened from within.
Every corner of the Globe is engaged in spiritual battle - whether or not they realize it or want it.