My take:
People in public spaces are ruder, more entitled and shittier than ever. We're climbing asymptotically up a curve of "I want mine".
In most areas I am familiar with, it's not desperation (say, here where I live.) People seem to not be as concerned at all about the general economy or things circling the drain. I don't pick up any of the anxiety of the very early 1980s, the early 1990s, or the 2008 - 2012 period. Despise the libtard bloviations about Trump destroying everything good, the exact opposite in general seems to be occurring across the general economy.
"quiet desperation in Western Virginia" -
funny you mention that exact state. We just got back (on Friday) from a short vacation trip to the New River area.
The entire New River valley seems to be a millennial / young adult mecca with a ton of outdoor outfitters, "klever" shops, upscale and dining, etc. I don't think it's just the New River/Fayetteville region either. Charleston the state capital which we passed through in both directions seemed to be booming. WV has a state run tourist trap "juried for excellence" arts and crafts center in Beckley called "Tamarack." Prices are in nosebleed territory. But it was full of people and is a slick monument to "PBS supporter" style affluenza.
We stayed where we did - southern/western WV - because our other favorite area, Canaan Valley (100 mi or so from you) was way more expensive for lodging. So whatever I said about the New River, double that for eastern WV.
LOTS of locally made craft beer. LOTS of locally made distillery product. I brought home a fifth of locally made bourbon.
People working in shops seemed pleasant and unstressed.
I saw no surface level desperation in WV. Qualified, of course, by the fact that we were in a mainly tourist area with no current mining or manufacturing operations.
The feel of being in WV was quite different than urban Ohio. If anything, Ohioans radiate dislike and impatience. WV ranks quite low on a lot of quality of life scales but I don't see it compared to Ohio.
Although a quaint gift shop we stopped in had on a shelf next to the bottles of Appalachian hill folk salad dressing, a stack of books with the title "HOW TO QUIT METH NOW!"