An old article from Slate discusses "social hypochondria": we always seem to be obsessing about some social "problem." Even though America is not a society lurching from one acute social crisis to the next, it is often hard to see things that way. Factors include the major political parties, which are to a great extent coalitions of convenience among people who each feel strongly about one or two hot button issues and the media, which have an obvious vested
interest in sowing serial social panic, and finally lawyers: suing is our national sport.