The Regulatory Impulse

The social pressure to conform to the ideal of a nuclear, two-parent family — a pressure backed by legal and financial impediments to alternative arrangements — set the stage for a dramatic later breakdown when those legal and financial barriers (e.g., no-fault divorce, relaxed lending standards) began to erode starting in the mid-twentieth century. The hidden strain of 1900–1910, therefore, established a moral baseline built on denial, which was unsustainable over the long term.^[32?]The 88 percent figure was real — but it was held together by coercion, not contentment.^[33]