They both agree that it is a conscious decision to see their spouse as a partner and not the competition or the enemy. You have to remind yourself that the commitment and the stability and companionship is comforting. Since 1970, the U.S. divorce rate has skyrocketed. It has leveled off since 1995. But the most optimistic sociologists refuse to interpret the decline as a turn-around for the institution of marriage.
Fewer divorces are the result of fewer people going down the aisle at all.
A better gauge of marriage is the number of adults currently married and the cultural attitudes about marriage. Both are at an all-time low, Popenoe said. Opinion surveys indicate that each generation of Americans is increasingly cynical about marriage. Married people themselves report lower levels of satisfaction with their relationships than they have in the past. While it might seem the death of marriage is inevitable, there is a growing number of people in the United States unwilling to proceed with the funeral march.