The problem started in the US as unintended consequences of trying to create cars with better MPG. In the last century the US government created a standard for how efficient vehicles need to be. At the time most people drove cars and specifically station wagons were among the most popular styles of cars. Trucks were not aspirational vehicles and were used for work only. And since work trucks often times do need a lot more power than a family hauler or at least need to be heavier/larger, the government created two different standards: one for cars and one for trucks (body on frame vehicles).

Of course manufacturers immediately saw that they could just make trucks more like cars than make cars more fuel efficient so they started putting modern interiors and such into trucks and modernizing the platforms to create SUVs. Thus the station wagon died and the SUV became the standard family vehicle for a lot of people.