I blame this on the downturn in Agriculture and Manufacturing.
Basically now we import things form China/Africa etc we dont have any real jobs to do, therefore people end up in made up non jobs with 35 hours a week (short hours as they go on strike if they have to work too hard). The non-jobbers find things to get worried about and interfear, this leads to further decline in agriculture and manufacturing as Non Jobbers make these even more regulated, therefore home produced stuff gets even more expensive/uncompetitive so the cycle continues.
Years go people like this would have worked in real jobs involving heavy machinery, most would have fallen into it whilst trying to save a squirrel from being squashed.
