I have a sense that the "enshittification" of the world started with Gen-X — we were the first group of people to grow up with the possibility that we would NOT be as well off as our parents. The most recent scary statistic is that Gen Alpha will likely be the first generation to be dumber than their parents. Of course, "dumb" is a vague and politically incorrect piece of terminology, but the statistics show intelligence/critical thinking is measurably on the decline.

I imagine the system is going to break at some point, as those in top echelons seem blind to the fact that the very machine that is making them so rich is running out of fuel. It's great that we have AI and that AI can do the work of humans, but without those humans spending money, it stops mattering what those AI driven machines can create...

People talk about developing new skills for the new age... but perhaps the best skills we can "develop" is knowing how to grow food and knowing how to build stuff ourselves.