I've said it before in these threads, but it's a lot of things and I think cultural changes have a huge effect.
A generation ago getting divorced was a huge taboo for both genders, it was considered a major failure.
If you were thinking of divorce it was a lot more likely that your friends, family, and even acquaintances would try to talk you out of it.
That's not the case any more, and that old sense of community is long gone. Add to that the fact that our legal system heavily favors women, and you get the situation we have now.
Women are initiating these divorces the vast majority of the time, for a check or out of boredom or both.
Then you factor in social media, where even a below average girl can get tons of ego boosting attention.
I know I have severe social problems and terrible taste in women, but most of the guys I know are having the same problems.
Whether they're better looking, have more money or charisma, most guys I know are ending up divorced or heading for divorce by their 30s.
You mentioned your girl have been off and on and had to fight to make it work. Most women don't seem to be willing to fight for a relationship any more. It's too easy to just find someone else.
A lot of good points here, but you have also missed quite a bit. Perhaps due to your youth. I'm 47, so I am not as far removed from these things as many on the forum. A lot of these things I lived with as I grew up with my parents and grandparents.
You are right that a few generations back, that divorce was a huge social taboo. But you know what else was? Being old and not married.
Especially for women. An older unmarried woman was a 'spinster' or 'old maid'.
HUGE social stigma attached to that. An older unmarried man was merely a bachelor. Very little stigma was attached by comparison.
You are very right about the evaporating sense of community, and that is to our detriment. But even that has a lot more to do with economic factors vs social factors. 2 generations ago, a father working a 9-5 in a sears or as a garbage collector, and a stay at home Mom was 'middle class'. Now 2 full time working parents are barely making ends meet a lot of the time.
You talk about how the legal system heavily favors women in divorces, and perhaps that is true. It's important to recognize though that this is a perfectly normal pendulum swing from generations past. My grandmother got married in 1944 and was married for 70 years. If she had got divorced in 1954 she would have been completely and absolutely fucked. Completely at the mercy of her husband. The social expectation at that time would have mandated that she take the children and move back in with her parents, if that were economically feasible. Otherwise the expectation would be that she would more or less starve.
The social stigma you mentioned, along with the economic realities divorced women faced in the past, kept absolutely miserable couples married and in the womens case, often medicated.
All this said, I would absolutely agree with you that the pain threshold seems to be extremely low in married couples today. They seem to check out of marriage a lot easier. And I think this is a direct result of intolerance of infidelity, and the lessening social stigma of divorce, as well as the lessening economic consequence for women.
The rate at which married men and women cheat is pretty close. Somewhere between 60%-65%. Men with a slight edge.
Here is what is different now though. The % of people
getting caught cheating is going up dramatically. With all the technology today, It's just easier to get caught. Though women seem to be much better at not getting caught than men.
What to do? Here is some advice from an old man that has been very happily married for a long time. Men tend to cheat a lot more when they are sexually dissatisfied and women tend to cheat more when they are emotionally dissatisfied. So men- Pay attention to your wives. Be interested and affectionate. Share your feelings occasionally, as painful as that might be. And ladies, keep in shape, present well, fuck your husbands and suck their dicks- A LOT!!