The world has certainly gotten more shit outside the four walls of my home (and I guess on the TVs in my home), especially since COVID.
A lot of your post seems to be about media, and I tend to agree mainstream movies, music, tv, etc. has gone downhill. Just walk past a movie theatre and count what percentage of movies are NOT a sequel, remake, new riff on an old IP, etc. Everything has been watered down. Games look very impressive, but largely lack soul as they've become more "refined." I know a lot of people miss that little bit of jank and sandboxy-ness that classic games had, when it was more about the experience of interacting with the fake game worl than making the fake game world seem like real life.
As far as movies and TV, I feel like we've just kinda done everything that big studios are going to accept. It all seems so predictable because I feel like I've seen it. I do not spend much time watching TV or movies, generally, not just recently, but if someone gets me to watch something I feel like I can tell within a minute what message its going to try and push on me. Maybe I just got older and jaded, but I feel like things used to have more subtlety.
