I think we all have need of some historical perspective when we ask questions like “when did America become (insert adjective here).”
America has always been like this! Everyone lately has been asking this question as if these behaviors were knew. They’re not new.
A not insignificant contingent of Americans have always been a bunch of self a**holes who were willing to prioritize their feelings of superiority over the lives of other human beings. No other lives matter but their own and how they feel. If you’re a member of a marginalized community in America you’ve seen it all the time. It’s only surprising to certain people because they’re either very young, or have led lives of privilege where they were never at the receiving end of this degree of personal selfishness, and so never had to consider it.
America has always been a deeply narcissistic country that was willing to destroy democracy anywhere else in the world if it found some benefit to it.