Menninger’s prescient ironic “almost hitting the nail on the head” pays tribute to the difficulty of figuring out “what is going on” during the emergence of a new symbolic order.  Key features to look for are:

Certain words disappear (with no apparent replacement) or change meaning.

New institutions are formed. Established institutions are “captured” by “like-minded people”.

Individuals within institutions undergoing “capture” lose nerve.  They do not know how to “dissent”.

David Gelennter in American Lite (2012: Encounter Books) independently attests to the consolidation of the Public Cult of Progressivism during this period (from the 1960s on).   Gelennter calls this consolidation “the rise of the PORGI” (Post-Religious Global Intellectual).