Why are so many issues framed with a "fallen" narrative? And does that framing limit us?

This may be a bit too lofty a question, but I thought I’d try asking for some jelly thoughts on it anyway.

Context:

I was reading a book and ran into a portion looking at a particular study’s findings. It wasn’t so much the findings that caught my attention—the study found inadequacies in certain educational practices—as much as the way it was framed. The specific framing was: ”‘America has forgotten how to raise healthy kids.’”

The study as-described was only looking at a snapshot in time—whether adolescents in various settings (at the time of the study) met certain criteria for ”‘optimally healthy development.’” It wasn’t comparing the development of those adolescents against that of adolescents of previous eras, and so the data alone couldn’t have shown a decline (a “forgetting”). That idea of forgetting seemed to be added by the explanation.

I wrote in the margin of the book: “Have we forgotten, or are we learning that we never knew?” And then I wondered: If the issue is that we never knew, but we assume that we’ve simply forgotten, what does that mean for how we approach the issue?

I’m explaining my thinking here to give a specific example of “this,” but it is certainly not the only example. The archetypal narrative frame of “we are fallen” is quite common—once we were better, now we are corrupt, but (usually) we can be better again. (I’m hoping you know what I mean and can think of other examples of this as well.)

Question:

Moving past my specific example and looking at the archetype more generally:

Why do “we” seem so ready to ascribe problems to a “fall,” and in that framing assume there was a time when the issue we’re considering was solved? And if we assume that the solution to problems is to restore or to return in some capacity or other, does that limit our ability to solve issues in meaningful—even lasting—ways? (Whether through a reluctance to seek a novel solution, or in a belief that if something never was “better before,” it cannot be “restored,” etc.?)