if i may overgeneralize . . .
the Jacobean period in
England was creepily like the
USA at the end of the
20th century in some ways: a time of expansion, prosperity, and power (the
Elizabethan thing in their case) was
coagulating into
paranoia and
decadence.
popular entertainment became preoccupied with violence and crime (
Revenge Tragedy), in ever-increasing doses. as decadence deepened, popular religious agitators
inveighed against it, and some people started listening.
Oliver Cromwell and the
Roundheads loomed on the horizon.
fortunately, history doesn't often repeat itself
verbatim.