I've noticed that as well. I cannot think of a more disastrous combination than the dysgenic trends in genetics coupled with an entire generation who have no actual life experience or useful practical skills and literally all they know how to do is play on their phones or make Tik Tok videos. I know exactly what you mean.

Growing up my dad was an industrial electrician and makes a point of turning his hand to most trades. My house was a building site growing up and I would always watch my dad or other tradesmen and then I would normally get given jobs to do. You learn by watching someone do it and then doing it yourself. My one grandfather was an electrical engineer and was also a mad inventor type on the side. I used to make money on the side doing all sorts of things for people I knew. I used to fix bikes for people, make things for them. Do things of questionable legality but those skills I developed as a kid have helped me immensely as an adult.

I think a lot like language - that you really need to have picked it up and be talking by a certain age and then be reading and writing at a certain age. I think the fine motor skills needed to do practical work also need to be honed when you're young. I wonder how many of these kids would be able to actually pick them up if they had to? Most western countries are going to become a lot like the USSR in terms of labour availability. In the USSR there were no tradesmen. You worked where you were told and labour was so short. If you needed wiring doing, your roof reshingling or your floor replacing or your car repaired you had to do it yourself.