re: Which generation is to blame for this country’s direction?

Certainly diet, activity, social media, smartphones have a role in the last 3-4 decades

One thing about the generations - post WW2 saw the explosion of the middle class. Family incomes were within very tight distributions - the top were a lot closer to the middle and bottom than ever before in history. Debt was cheap. We could all watch the same three TV channels each night.

Parents raised their children that everyone can have a great life and the same things, no matter of origin, and that was mostly true - just as consumerism exploded.

In latter decades, the top grew in wealth exponentially more than the middle and lower percentiles but people still have the belief that we should all have the same things. Thus leading to keeping up with Joneses.