Only way you're getting conservative is if you have stuff to conserve, like a house you were able to buy, or investments to protect. Lemme just check the economic status on my generation and... yeah about that....

The conservatives had my whole life to prove their worth. They have reliably failed, only getting worse with time.

but I’m left wondering if there’s also a unifying underlying reason.

Yes. It's called liberalism.

It’s not just a US thing either, it appears to be an international problem.

It's a fundamentally liberal thing. It's no different here in South Africa - here is a Head Pig in South Africa manufacturing consent for using state violence against labour organising. That's where I live, btw - it's a reactionary time bomb waiting to go off.

they are not ideologically anything

That's not true. When I used the term fundamentalist liberal I meant it - that's what they are. They are not fascists - they wouldn't know how to be fascists if they tried. Can you really imagine the likes of Trump or Clinton violently protecting their own ill-gotten private property? Of course not - that's what the hencherproletariat is for. They are simply liberals that are doing openly what liberals have traditionally done covertly - funding, distilling and enabling those elements of the working class that is willing and able to violently repress the rest of the working class for the benefit of these liberal elites... ie, that which we today call fascism.

Funny because I've turned into a Democratic socialist.