Halloween is a really good example of the declining social capital in America. It requires safe neighborhoods, spending money on strangers with no real assured return, a sense of festivity, and a shared culture. As people lose what ties them together, not only celebrating it, but trick or treating as a good example, fades away until children spend the night on their smartphones instead, and their parents spend the night watching late night talk show hosts spout propaganda before taking their daily half dozen painkillers and sleeping pills to medicate them into the next day.
The overall faith in the American system and spirit is what has binded people together for centuries, and now that people are losing faith in the established power's ability to solve their laundry list of problems, they turn inward. Many isolate themselves, but some search for solutions outside of the accepted boundaries of social acceptance.
