Economic changes can probably be tracked back to Stagflation[1] and the 1973 Oil Crisis[2], and the associated rise of Neoliberalism as evidenced, early on, through the Nixon Crisis[3] and formation of the Trilateral Commission[4]. Of course there was a huge amount of social change going on at the same time, much of which was interrelated with the economic changes.

As an example of how some viewed these challenges, the Trilateral Commission's 'Crisis of Democracy' paper[5] - though heavily criticised from both sides of politics[6] - offers some interesting insight into the perspectives held by a number of highly influential people of the period.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation#Explaining_the_197...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateral_Commission

[5] http://trilateral.org/download/doc/crisis_of_democracy.pdf

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateral_Commission#Criticis...