Now that is a really interesting perspective that I have never considered (or heard of) before. I always put it down to the change in the economic system. That's because every country that changed to the laissez-fare capitalism system (away from the mixed economy system) is facing more or less the same issues today.

Now that you point it out, there may have been hubris, and the hubris made people careless, and let them get too comfortable, and they forgot the basics.

Maybe. :)