For what it's worth, contrary to what /u/420big_poppa_pump420 said, I absolutely don't think the 'everybody gets a trophy mentality is made-up. The whole bootstraps mentality is very real as well and it's generally common with the baby boomers and the two or three generations prior to them, because they lived in a time when (in America, at least) there really was such an incredible amount of opportunity and so many new industries being developed that you actually did have a fairly good chance of carving out a good living for yourself on work ethic alone.

The whole 'failure isn't real' mentality is more typical of millenials/gen Y-ers, though in my biased opinion that mentality is merely a reflection of the upbringing of those generations primarily by the baby boomers and maybe gen X. (I say biased because I am a millenial myself so obviously I am inclined to shift the blame for our generation's issues onto others.)

Personally I don't think the 'everyone's a winner' idea is exceptionally harmful as I think that kind of positive reinforcement probably is beneficial (to an extent) when raising young children. The problem, in my opinion, is how that mentality has now warped into this 'nobody is a loser' crap. It essentially seems like people are becoming so terrified of insulting someone else's tender sensibilities that any hint of 'political incorrectness' is now tantamount to social suicide, for lack of a better term. It seems like I learn about a new discriminatory '-ism' every day (i.e. ableism) and instead of simply ignoring these weird social trends people now feel somehow obligated to pander to and heap praise onto any random person who thinks they're being discriminated against.

I really believe that this mentality basically paved the way for some of the absolutely absurd fads that have grown in popularity recently, namely with all this 'otherkin' stuff. Say what you will about these people but personally I just pity them because I could easily see myself having fallen into a similar trap like that when I was younger. That entire phenomenon is literally just teenagers struggling to find their own identity, like all teenagers do; the problem is that with this culture of being afraid to upset anyone, instead of trying to help these people we're simply pretending to 'accept' their beliefs, and in doing so are enabling that behavior to continue. It's scary because I know that when I was a teenager I went through some really rough patches and on occasion I would get sucked into these fringe communities on the internet - for example, I went through like a three-month period where I was convinced I was telepathic, spent a bunch of time doing 'drills' in IRC chat with similar people, etc., and that being the case, if the whole otherkin fad had taken root a decade or two earlier I think there's definitely a chance that I would've bought into it as well, somehow. Most of these people are just kids who are desperate to find where they fit in, and that's a totally natural thing; however, when it gets to the point where that desire to be a part of something leads to the development of unhealthy habits/beliefs, and people are publicly and loudly proclaiming that it's a thing to be respected and honored, it becomes harmful to society.

Anyway, now my post is way too long as well. Like you I don't really have any idea what I'm talking about. I definitely don't think that this issue is something that's made up in any way, shape or form, though.