What has happened is that there is an increasing climate of distrust between people that incipient 'third parties' can leech upon. The increased role of state agencies in interpersonal disputes is facilitated by a general sense of anxiety about our ability to get on with each other. Individual relations are more fraught. There are real pressures on families and neighbourhoods. The most straightforward pressure is the impact of economic insecurity.
Love flies out of the window when poverty comes in the door.
But equally important is the changing framework in which people have to deal with their domestic problems. In the past people's aspirations for a better life were projected beyond their four walls, through more collective, public outlets like trade unions and political parties. Today those options have narrowed, and people's reactions to their problems are more insular. Instead of fighting on the public stage over the distribution of society's resources, people are more likely to end up bickering with each other about noise, or clearing up the rubbish. In straitened circumstances, and without public outlets for personal frustration, individual relations can become more fraught.