The campaign against ethics began in earnest (to my observation) with Newt Gingrich and has led us to Trump, an absolute caricature of an indecent human being, as president. It is often said that "we are a nation of laws", but laws are useless without a solid ethical environment where people actually respect the law.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.
R. Buckminster Fuller