The late Chicago movie critic, Roger Ebert, used to refer to the "Idiot Plot," in a lousy movie where if any single character simply failed to act like an idiot, there would simply be no movie to watch.

And lately that seems to describe the world, too.

Is there a limit to what a dumbed-down populace will tolerate?

There is certainly a common thread, however:

"On the Hatred of Women"

There is an extended follow-up teaching, in two parts, directly from Scripture, on the topic:
https://markcallshow.transistor.fm/episodes/mark-call-torah-teaching-for-parsha-shoftim