My "why has the world gone to shit" was the 2007/8 banking crisis when everyone realised that you could pull off any swindle you wanted and no one would stop you. So everyone did/everyone stopped trying to hide it.
So presumably people older than me would point to the start of Trickle Down Economics, and so on
Everyone has their own "None of this works and it's intentional!" moment
With you on BotW. Love the dungeons, but in terms of the open world I never felt the oooh, the aaah, the escapism that everyone cooed about etc. Gliding was fun!
Maybe this is because I've never played a Zelda game before so I have no nostalgia attached to it?