There have been some studies showing things like divorce are "contagious." Basically when one person in a social circle gets divorced, the likelihood is high that others will also get divorced. I haven't seen a study that separates causation vs correlation on this one.
I wonder if the professional burnout has a similar "contagion" aspect. A bunch of us are getting burned out. People who are borderline burned out, see the similar behaviors, mindsets, etc, and cross over the line. And since we're all super-connected and many of us are super-vocal, the effect is magnified.
Might be an age or experience issue. I mean, after 3 years of marriage, maybe theres an increase likelihood of boredom setting in and since friends tend to be in the same age range, and possibly got married around the same age, maybe it's just that time...Either way, be careful what conclusions you draw from correlations.
I see a similar possibility here. Startup scene got big around early last year say, now it's winding down, people are realizing, once again, that it's the hot shot big hits that get the showtime, not the 90%+ who have a failure and ended up wasting a year or more of their prime living on ramen and "bootstrapping". Take a look at the app store for how that works out.
I wonder if the professional burnout has a similar "contagion" aspect. A bunch of us are getting burned out. People who are borderline burned out, see the similar behaviors, mindsets, etc, and cross over the line. And since we're all super-connected and many of us are super-vocal, the effect is magnified.