Where did it all go wrong?

Maxim gun used by the Roal Navy

Lots of older people wonder where it all went wrong?  There is no doubt that society is going through some difficult changes, and things don't seem as settled as they once were.  Lots of us who lived through the era think the sixties "hippie" time was where we began to lose our thread a little.  But why was that the case?
During that time there was the invention of the pill and also the increase in spending power of youth which gave them a voice, there was also the great jump in universal communications with TV spreading the news.
But I believe there was one reason this huge change came about, and it is because we had lost the cream of a generation of leaders who had simply died on the fields of Flanders.  The total number of dead during this war was 10 million military, with another 5 million civilians killed
This generation of bright, young, courageous (mostly) men were literally wiped out on the battlefield of the First World War in the trenches, with poison gas and the alarming efficiency of the machine gun as invented by Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884.  The men were usually in their late teens and early twenties, and by the time 1960 rolled around they would have been in very senior leadership positions.  And on their way no doubt having shaped society.  Without them we lacked their vision and their courage.  It's just my idea.  What do you think?
This year on February 7, we lost the very last WWI veteran.  You might like to read about her. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46297110/ns/world_news-europe/t/time-my-life-last-known-wwi-veteran-dies