And now seems to be the norm.

Decent, caring people with morals and character are now the abnormal ones.

I used to believe my sister was just "mean". Then I made a list of her hostilities specifically directed at me. The list was three pages.

I simply cut her out of my life. No arguing. No shouting. No announcement. Just pleasantly divorced.

I figure that she's redirected her narcissistic antics to her husband, poor soul.

A clean break is best.
Makes for a much healthier life.

There were 2 prominent experienced psychologists on YouTube on the subject, yes Dr. Ramani was one, Dr. Les Carter from Texas another, and a few powerful others, some of whom absolutely grabbed market share. Now there are dozens, so much so that one of the most successful is exiting the subject. So it's widely known, and once you learn it, you see it in your own life. But it must have been known a long long time because we have cultural expressions of narcissism's prevalence.

"Too many cooks spoil the broth." That was my house, everyone making a lot of noise and telling everyone else what to do. Enmeshment, codependence, narcissism all go together. Even 12-step has made space for dysfunctional codependence. Because that enables the root: people who lack boundaries and don't defend their own turf because it's "not allowed".

I blame religion. Meddling with people's lives.

Psychologists kept warning about it to no avail.

Parents refused to discipline their children.

Said they didn't want to upset their children, and their kids did not like consequences.
That is the point of consequences, to make the kids prefer doing the right thing over the bad thing.

Parents kept heaping false praise on kids who were being difficult and acting out aggressively
at home and school.

Real pride is based on actual achievement.

Parents wanted to be their kid's best friend, not their parent.
So adults gave up on parenting.

As a therapist I used to do a lot of family counseling.
I would ask the kids and parents to start coming up with rules of the road to help
decrease the chaos and problems.

The kids actually did much better than the parents coming up with family rules and consequences.
So the kids were more on the ball than the parents in many cases.

I was firmly in the ‘denial of privilege’ mindset for all things punishment-related. This was made more difficult by my kids’ association with the offspring of permissive parents.

No rules, no consequences, constant fake praise.

Many of the kids were fine at school, but hell on wheels at home.
So they knew how to follow the rules at school, church, etc.
But at home there was no need to be appropriate.

The parents wanted to be their children's best friends, gave up on being parents.
Wanted the kids to be bursting with self esteem, so never upset the children,
heaped tons of fake praise on them. Made them equals in the home, etc.

So we have all these narcissists running the govt now.

And everyone thinks they are an expert on every topic.
No need for facts or science.