Many cultural factors intensify the midlife transition and help cause it to become a crisis.
We live in a youth-oriented society. Young adults are used as the models of our society. We live in a throw-away society. When I was at a men's retreat with men who worked for electronic companies, they said their competitive industry has a systematic evaluation program to wash men out. When they started with the company as young men, they were given lots of affirmation and positive strokes, but when they turned 40, the company started evaluating them more often.