This thread is something I think about often. I have a 20 yr old son, 19 yr old daughter, 17 yr old daughter.
Here are the big contributors in my view:
1. A wide ideology gap that is growing wider
Young women are far more liberal than they have been in my lifetime. I can see this in my kids and their friends. Young men are trending the other direction and the divide in ideology between the two is increasing. And when the ideology is that different, many women view men as "monsters" and are afraid of them. And the men view the women as "men haters" and want nothing to do with them. My son was routinely attacked in high school and at UT for offering up even moderate opinions.
I'm sure you all have seen this chart before, but it definitely tracks my personal observations:
2. Women won't date less educated men
This is another big one. Women are more educated than at any time in world history. For thousands of years, women have been socially programmed to want a guy who is at least as educated as themselves. And if the men are less educated, then they better be very successful / rich or they have zero shot.
Well, now colleges are 60% made up of women. Who are all of these educated women going to date? Is a female engineer or boss babe going to date an auto mechanic? Not in my experience. So the women devote themselves to their work, rising in their organizations while collecting "bodies" in their casual dating, all the while becoming less attractive to the increasingly conservative young men.
3. Increased social isolation
People are spending more time than ever alone. Remote work, remote school, decrease in social activities, decrease in faith-based and community activities, etc. have reduced the intersection points that fueled dating for previous generations. So people turn to dating apps, and only the top% of people end up getting all the action.
This all starts when people are young and just gets worse as they get older.