Politico calls this “fickle.” Some might call it spoiled.

An emerging group of political practitioners and social scientists is examining the trend and finding that loyalty — at least the kind of loyalty that once kept consumers bound to products and voters bound to political parties — is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. …

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Just look at the hottest new trend in marriage: the 50-year itch.

Linda Lea Viken is a 32-year veteran divorce attorney in Rapid City, S.D. She said she’s seeing a dramatic uptick in the number of divorces among senior citizens. “I’m doing divorces of 50-year marriages,” she said. “You want to say to yourself, ‘You’ve made it this far — are you kidding me?’”

She says the trend is driven by everything from longer life expectancies to the impact of Viagra on the sex lives of seniors. But she also thinks it’s a result of older people mimicking attitudes they’re picking up from younger Americans. “We’re becoming a little bit of a ‘me first’ society,” she said. “It’s becoming difficult to really understand what people want because it’s what they want right now. But tomorrow, they might want something else.”

Well, I’m thinking that people who have been married for 50 years then up and decide to split have always had some issues lurking beneath the placid exterior. But sure, pin it on our instant gratification society; if a product/spouse/political party etc. doesn’t immediately grant your every wish, switch - because there’s always another product, person or politician who will tell/give you exactly what you want.

And thus the concept of deferred gratification withers away. Which is exactly why this country found itself in such debt with so little money in the bank. It’s all the same thing.