and there are any number of strangers with a financial incentive to make that happen.
Lots of misaligned incentives in this world today.
I don't know that these youngsters are actually broken; it might be a sensible reaction to a broken society.
Perhaps, but what is seen as an existential crisis seems to be lowering in severity, and is rarely physical. The emotional self is so fragile today, that it seems that any threat to it is seen existential.