I also noticed this in university and I was curious enough about it to read some history books. I believe that society never cared about young men. They were always left to fend for themselves.
In my opinion, the part that's new in modern times is the transparency caused by the internet. Rags to riches, washing dishes to becoming a billionaire, ... these stories have always been extremely unlikely to happen in practice. But without a way to check the statistics, people still kind of believed in them. With the access to information that we have now, that is changing and so people are checking out when they notice that the structure of society is stacked against them. I mean it always has been, but without the internet people didn't notice it so clearly.
And yes, I also believe that feminism might play a role, but more on the demand side: Nowadays, it is not mandatory anymore for the man to have a good enough job to feed the family, because double-income-households have become the norm. Back in the days where typically only the man would be the breadwinner, there was probably a stronger psychological pressure for men to deliver. I'm not sure if the absence of that nagging is good or bad, but it sure changed in the past 50 years.
In my opinion, the part that's new in modern times is the transparency caused by the internet. Rags to riches, washing dishes to becoming a billionaire, ... these stories have always been extremely unlikely to happen in practice. But without a way to check the statistics, people still kind of believed in them. With the access to information that we have now, that is changing and so people are checking out when they notice that the structure of society is stacked against them. I mean it always has been, but without the internet people didn't notice it so clearly.
And yes, I also believe that feminism might play a role, but more on the demand side: Nowadays, it is not mandatory anymore for the man to have a good enough job to feed the family, because double-income-households have become the norm. Back in the days where typically only the man would be the breadwinner, there was probably a stronger psychological pressure for men to deliver. I'm not sure if the absence of that nagging is good or bad, but it sure changed in the past 50 years.