Our parents met in college, at church, at social events, at bars, and we seem to be relegated to dating apps
Let me in on a secret. The bar/club scene was basically what the apps are not. You showed up to a crowded place where men outnumbered women by a lot just like on the apps. Then girls would ignore you and pair up with the most attractive guys until you found yourself at closing time late at night praying that the last girl there would take pity on you and not go with one of the other 20 guys there.
I never went to church and have no idea what a "social event" is, but while there where a lot of girls in college .. It's not like the average dudes drowned in interest.
When apps showed up around 1999/2000 (or rather dating websites) what happened isn't that they made it harder to get a relationship .. That shit was hard as fuck always. What happened is that you could convince a not particularly attractive and often overweight girl to go out on a rainy boring Wednesday and maybe get laid.
Life changed from not getting laid for years on end to getting laid a couple of times a year.
Thing is, if you're average looking you won't get much in terms of proper interest until you're in your late 20 and it doesn't pick up before in your 30. Not that it ever becomes easy, but it just stops being close to impossible.