It’s a huge turn off to be with someone who thing you are lower than them. Who thinks you don’t deserve basic human rights.

While I don't disagree with this theory, I wonder why you would think that this is a recent development.

Can I also add in stress and other environmental factors?

I don't know... While this certainly has made a comeback in the last couple of years (thanks to rise of fucking Nazi shits all over the world), there has been a positive development.

I actually believe it has more to do with the ever increasing "efficiency" at work and addictive media (YouTube, social media, Netflix, etc.). People just don't have time for sex anymore, because there are quicker ways to get your dopamine fixed. This is also why people don't go out and socialize anymore. Social media is actually very antisocial.

It’s a huge turn off to be with someone who thing you are lower than them. Who thinks you don’t deserve basic human rights.

Are you basing this on dating app matches? It might be a case of survivor bias

To elaborate, what's possibly happening is that only the assholes of society are the ones having a disproportionate level of exposure/influence on these apps because the good ones cycle out of it quickly enough when they find their viable partners. And then these assholes, who in fact represent a minority of the actual population, end up staining everyone else's opinions by making them think these people are the majority of peoples' behaviours.

There's a considerable uptick just before 2010, so WoW players must've been having lots of sex during WotLK years

I blame the GenZ broccoli haircut.

Younger generations seem to treat basic conversation as cringeworthy. Like the fact that you’re even talking to them is seen as appalling, regardless of the context.

I’ve seen kids walk up to a register at a fast food joint, then act surprised and put off when the cashier asked for their order. Like the cashier was in the wrong for initiating a conversation. Oftentimes, the kid won’t even respond until the cashier is like “ooookay, uhh… If you’re not ready to order, can you step out of line?”

The best description I’ve seen for it is “they’re waiting for the dialog options to load.” Because it 100% looks like they’re just waiting for some external force to move the conversation along. It reminds me of when boomers get the lead paint stare while waiting for the card reader to finish reading their chip. The machine will just be dinging at them to remove their card, the cashier will be like “Uhh sir? Please take your card” and the boomer will act surprised. Like they were just stuck in a loading screen while the rest of the party was already pulling mobs.

I'm a millennial who just spent the last 7 years at Uni/CC and I'm not seeing any of this. COVID had a huge impact, but in general things seem pretty much the same as when I was in school in the 90's/early aughts, except they're on smartphones instead of Nokias. They just seem normal to me.