I think that's a function of the internet combined with a new flavor of individual exceptionalism. It is shockingly easy to engage only in echo chambers, even without knowing it. You're just on a site for people with similar interests, nevermind that those people all agree with you entirely.
Combine that with the lessons kids are learning that they are legitimately unique and special, and anyone who makes them feel bad is just wrong, and here we are.
Or maybe I'm just the old man shouting at clouds now. Who knows.
The “unique and special” kids are mostly Americans, I think. At least I don’t recognize that parenting style anywhere around me.
I really think the world is too complex for most people and they outsource their critical thinking to the group they chose to join or even were born into.
I don’t think it’s a modern problem. Religion formed enormous safe spaces for incurious people before they ran into new peers via the internet.