This is largely due to the expansion of debt in the economy over the decades. The parents benefit from it seeing their assets appreciate. The issue is that future generations can’t afford the higher prices when it’s driven off of debt rather wages. Any culture needs resources and without those resources the culture can’t continue with passage of age:

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In Japan for example has been on emergency assistance from their central bank since 1990 and has had multiple lost generations. Media and economists blame the lost generation but ignore the debt that keeps growing that spawns the lost generation. Leaders ignore this and basically blame the youth.

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In other words, the elders failed to reform and correct the debt levels and instead took the easy way out at the expense of future generations. The rights of passage are not there and families will not form and the population begin to shrink where too many old. Either there is devaluation or a debt jubilee.

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