>>512521457In Europe it's different.
In the US there are theories about how it happened.
Given the biggest drop in the trend started in the 90s, it's argued among some of the more philosophical analysts that this is due to the fall of the Soviet Union.
Not directly, but rather the US was terrified of a communist revolution, so almost every law about social security, welfare, civil rights, etc, happened in this era because it was feared that the Soviets would use the lack of protections for normal people as propaganda to fuel the working class into a revolution.
When Reagan came along and ginned up the anticommunist feelings super fucking hard, he also brought laws that started to weaken the social safety nets (he is why Social Security Income is taxed in the US).
When the Soviet Union fell, it became full time to shine for the capitalists who were afraid of fueling a revolution, because there was no one left to fund the revolution.
I feel the 80s shift in corporate culture was a bigger contributing factor that just took a while to be felt though. There's a reason every corporate dystopia movie was made in the 80s.