This crisis is just a logical conclusion of many bad ideas introduced and parrotted (and followed) over the last 30-40 years.

Pain is evil.  
Pain is not natural.
Pain should be lessened immediately with drugs. 
It's inhumane or odd to suggest that one should put up with little pains a bit more, delay a bit the seeking of pain relief.
It's ridiculous to think that God allows pain to happen for ANY reason at all. 

For example:
- to teach us various realities (to care better care of our bodies, to avoid over-indulgence, to maintain good hygeine, avoid over-exertion, to not ignore the demand for rest, variety, etc)
- to teach a new way to draw toward the humanity of Christ (unifying our little pains with His pains; God designed a way for us to do this). 
- to help us re-assess our life, our direction, to reprioritize. 

So little by little we started popping aspirins, motrins to avoid or speed away realities, and over time some of us have "given in" to the heavy use of addictive drugs.