I think both men and women simply do not feel compelled to seek long term permanent relationships. When women and men both were more geared to having and raising families, by necessity they had to find someone with whom to do that. Today, young people seem more geared to careers and activities (both of which have to be subordinated to families, if one decides to go down that road).

So, instead it seems people think of "getting married someday and "maybe" having a child, but not now... there is no "rush". But in truth there is...

In fact, the fertility rates are dropping so fast, that currently population forecasts are that by the end of the century the global population will begin to decline.

Even less problematic than the "biological clock" women worried about in the past (not so much today), the problem I have noticed with my own children is that the older they get the more developed their lives are. That makes it hard for someone else to fit into them.

Marriage and long-term relationships involve a degree of flexibility that increasingly, I don't think young people have and as the age the ability to fit someone into their lives becomes even more difficult.

So, yes... there are "a lot of fish in the ocean", but if you are looking for a "rare" fish, there are not nearly as many as one might think.

On the other hand, I see a lot more "Friends" situations where a group of relatively young people "hang out". My niece was one such person and eventually one of the "friends" became her best friend, and in her late thirties they married.