It depends on the location, imo. In America, Clown World (or at least the components of it) have been a thing for a long time. I'd argue all the way back in the 70s or 80s we started slipping into Clown World shit, and LONG before that the stage for it was set. In many other places though it's been a far mroe recent affair, especially Europe.

The thing about liberalism and Clown World is that it sneaks up slowly. It starts as normal or slightly objectionable things, and gets worse and worse as time goes on, exponentially. This is why for a while it was manageable or even unnoticeable and then "suddenly" large jumps happen.