Bring back Employee Relations - I think we are gonna need it

First of all, let me set the stage with some factoids below: 

• Divorce Rate - Gone from 33% to 50% from 1970s to the 2000's.
• Over 15 Million law suits filed a year.
• Reality TV: Americans spend 1/3 of their free time watching television, and of that 67% are reality TV Shows.
• Our political Parties can’t get along to the point that the government is shutting down. 
• Bullying is becoming a national issue
• Violence in School is increasing
• Sexual content has exploded over the last 4 decades. 

What does this mean? 

Fundamentally, I believe the US population (as I don’t want to speak for other nations) is losing it’s ability to get along. Two decades ago, the expression of Talk to the Hand used to be funny, and now it has evolved into a pervasive culture of non-collaboration, non-cooperation and just flat out not getting along. 

What is even more bothersome is that we, as a culture, celebrate this short sighted behavior. Look at how many people are now famous for behaving poorly on Reality TV? Look at what is occurring on TV with sexual content. Studies show that in the 1970’s - prime time television would occasionally reference sex by innuendo or by character reference, but not show it. Then in the 1980’s, they would show the characters portraying sex,but often would contrast it with the risk. Now by the 2000’s - the studies are showing 4 portrayals of Sex and with no indication of the risk. 

We wonder why the ACT organization, and other college preparatory groups are stating that Soft Skills is a bigger issue than functional knowledge. 

What does this mean for HR? 

My fear is that the workplace is going to turn into crazy town. New research is showing that folks have a new job every 4.4 years, but the younger generations are expecting to stay at jobs less than 3 years. With that kind of turnover - what vested interest do folks have in building long term relationships? The minute someone hits adversity, they may employ a revenge tactic they saw on reality TV - which works great on TV - but creates a hostile work environment in real life. 

Bring Back Employee Relations?

I was one of the biggest fans of getting rid of Employee Relations and moving to HR business partner structures. This was often achieved by reducing the employee to HR ratio, increasing employee and manager self service, and centralizing contact centers. 

But if my fears about the future workforce and current societal culture are right - is that the wrong strategy now? Should we have embedded Employee relations at lower levels? This way they can spot, coach and intervene when they see problems starting to bubble? 

What do you think?