Everybody feels it. Ask almost anyone whether the country is heading in the right direction morally, and you will get a sigh, a story and a villain. The villain usually belongs to the other side.
The Moral Decay Index exists to do something harder than complain. It asks whether the standards people claim to hold survive contact with their own loyalties, and it tests that question against public evidence instead of vibes.
This page explains what the Index is, what it is not, and how to use it.
What we mean by moral decay
Moral decay is not a single number, and it is not a feeling that things used to be better. We use the term for something specific and observable: the gap between the values a society says it holds and the way its people and institutions actually behave.
That gap shows up in places you can measure. A public official who takes bribes to erase tax debts. A system that pays billions for services nobody verified. A voter who condemns corruption in the other party and excuses it in their own. Each is a case where a stated standard collapsed when it became inconvenient.
The eight lenses
We organize our work around eight lenses. Each one is a way of asking where stated values and real conduct come apart.
- Trust in Institutions. Do courts, agencies, the press and elected officials earn the confidence they ask for? See our analysis of Gallup’s institutional confidence data and of media trust at 28%.
- Political Polarization. Can Americans disagree without treating each other as enemies, and hold their own side to the same rules? See our polarization analysis and the Trump record as a consistency test.
- Crime & Violence. What does the data actually show about safety, and do our justice institutions produce justice? See crime trends versus public perception, incarceration and recidivism and the truth about retail theft.
- Family Stability. Are the conditions that let families form and children stay safe getting stronger or weaker? See marriage by age 40 and child protection.
- Mental Health Crisis. How are we caring for people in distress, especially the young? See youth mental health and social media.
- Substance Abuse. Are we reducing addiction and its deaths, and protecting people seeking treatment from exploitation? See overdose deaths and the Arizona Medicaid treatment fraud.
- Cultural Cohesion. Do we still share enough trust, participation and common ground to function as a community? See social trust by generation and religious participation.
- Income Inequality. Who carries the burden when the rules are bent, and who gets the benefit? See what the newest Census and Federal Reserve data show.
These lenses organize questions. They are not eight variables that add up to a grade.
Why there is no score
Earlier versions of this site displayed numerical national and state scores. They have been withdrawn, because they did not come with a published calculation that a reader could check and reproduce. A number that looks precise but cannot be verified is worse than no number at all. It invites trust it has not earned.
Our methodology spells out what a responsible score would require: a public table of inputs, exact source references, stated formulas and weights, honest handling of missing data, and a dated revision history. Until that exists, we will not publish one. That is not modesty. It is the same standard we apply to everyone else.
How we handle evidence
Every factual claim on this site should lead you to its source. We prefer original records: court filings, government data releases, official press releases and the underlying surveys, rather than someone else’s summary of them.
Three examples show the standard in practice:
- When we cite drug overdose deaths, we use the CDC’s final data. Its National Center for Health Statistics reported 105,007 deaths in 2023, down from 107,941 in 2022, and an age-adjusted rate that fell from 32.6 to 31.3 per 100,000. That is a decline, and we say so, even though it does not fit a story of endless worsening. CDC, NCHS Data Brief No. 522.
- When we cite media trust, we name the pollster, the question and the year. Gallup’s September 2025 survey found 28% of Americans trust the mass media to report news fully, accurately and fairly. That is a measure of attitudes, not of whether any particular story is true. Gallup.
- When we cite civic knowledge, we report the result and the survey’s own caveats. The 2026 Annenberg survey found 65% of adults could name all three branches of government, which Annenberg said was not a statistically significant change from 2025 or 2024. Annenberg.
When sources disagree, we explain why instead of picking whichever number helps our argument. When the evidence shows improvement, we report the improvement. A publication that only reports bad news is not measuring decay. It is selling it.
How to read a Case File
Many of our articles examine specific cases of public corruption and fraud. When you read one, keep four questions in front of you:
- What stage is the case in? A charge, a guilty plea, a verdict and a sentence are different events. People who have only been charged are presumed innocent, and we say so.
- Does the source support the exact claim? Click the link. Check it.
- What is still unknown? A restitution order does not prove the money came back.
- Would the argument be fair if the subject belonged to the other party? If not, the argument is broken, no matter how good it feels.
Facts, interpretation and judgment
We keep three things separate. A fact is something you can check against a record. An interpretation is what we think the fact means. A moral judgment is how we think conduct should be weighed. We are opinionated about the third. We try hard to be disciplined about the first. You should be able to accept our facts and still disagree with our conclusions.
What we ask of readers
Do not just agree with us. Test us. Bring a better source. Point out a missing qualification. Show us where we applied a standard unevenly. Use the corrections form and tell us what is wrong and why.
And turn the lens around. The easiest moral failures to spot are other people’s. The Moral Decay Index is ultimately a mirror. The question is not whether the country is decaying. It is whether you are holding the line where you stand.
Sources
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, “Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2003–2023,” Data Brief No. 522, December 2024
- Gallup, “Trust in Media at New Low of 28% in U.S.,” 2025
- Annenberg Public Policy Center, 2026 Constitution Day Civics Survey
If this made you angry, good. Now turn it inward. The Moral Consistency Journal is a 30-day audit of the places where your own standards bend. More Case Files and data breakdowns live at themoraldecayindex.com. Books that go deeper are in our Bookshop.org store, which supports independent bookstores.