I would say the anxiety has always been there but manifested in different ways.
In past generations anxiety/depression was bottled up and internalized until the internalizer snapped or died of a heart attack at 40 (real men don’t talk about feelings and emotions), masked via self medication with alcohol or drugs (have a drink to take the edge off, take some downers for my “nerves”) and there was a major social stigma surrounding mental health because our society and its penchant for only seeing black and white while dismissing shades of grey only thought there were two kinds of people - normal and crazy, when it reality, people come in all types between normal and crazy.
The differences we’re seeing with Gen Z amd Gen Alpha are a combination of living in the digital age where everyone has a platform to share their opinions with the masses and mental health is less stigmatized so more people are willing to speak out.
Finally, every generation is a little bit “softer” than the one before it, but generally more open to new ideas and changing social norms than the ones before it. For example, my generation took the taboo out of interracial dating but still were hostile towards gay folks. The one before me was hostile to interracial dating and gay folks. The one behind me doesn’t see either as taboo.
I’m sure this take is bad because I didn’t join the “Back in my day, we _____” opinion.