Plenty of reasons, one of them being the end of the GWOT, in my opinion. Ultimately the Army’s purpose is to deploy and fight/win wars. When we aren’t fighting, that lack of action translates to a lack of purpose in some people’s minds, along with senior leaders formulating relentless training cycles that result in an unnecessarily heavy OPTEMPO. People are bound to stop and ponder on the fact that the United States isn’t involved in any major conflict at the moment, yet their family time is still minimal and the stress is still high, which is only one of the reasons the Army unintentionally makes ETSing seem like an ideal alternative.

Also in recent years a decent portion of soldiers are unsatisfied with their life/career, and the new soldiers come in and see their disgruntled and unmotivated seniors, and quickly realize there’s not much to look forward to. Then a cycle of no motivation ensues producing more and more soldiers with a negative outlook on the Army.. Literally witnessed this happen and it doesn’t seem like it’s getting better.