I think much can be traced back to some kind of "switch" that happened in the late 1970's or early 1980's, and it relates directly to your point about "...the Protestant work ethic taken to toxic extremes."

There was this notion that "we can have it ALL!" and with it a subtext that we deserve to have it all. We have predominantly unhealthy relationship with work and how we define success. We typically measure success in terms of "things," and this definition extends as far as to even "commodify" happiness, like it were a "thing" we could acquire when it's actually a state of being."

But we value — as a society — hard work above life contentment, relationships, friendships and such. Not suggesting that's everybody, but enough to represent a majority. I regularly talk to my relatives back in Denmark, and what seems so different isn't whether or not we have similar sense of self-worth, but what elements go into defining what we consider self-worth and success.

The issue is super complex, to be sure. And the answer is not socialized medicine! Perhaps the answer lies in valuing our lives and relationships higher than things and success. No idea how that's going to happen, though...