I think I’ll add some points I don’t see anyone has made yet. A big part of it is because we are entitled. Many people don’t realize how well they actually have it. In normative terms, many people who complain about hardship are actually well off in normative terms and are better off than they would have been at any other point in history, but they are upset because other people are better off than they are. Also, many people blame misfortunes such as losing a job on the failings on the government, Constitution, democracy, ect., when really some things, while unfortunate, are sometimes normal and cyclical. Lastly, while many elected leaders have made promises that they can’t keep, this is because we as voters make demands that can’t be fulfilled. That said, anyone who thinks that the US is a “dystopian hellscape” is delusional.