I think you’ve got part of it right from my recollection and experiences, but not quite the full thing. I think Obama’s success actually lead shitty people to lash out more, which brought trump to power, which emboldened those shitty people to stop hiding it and actually be proud and display it. I think the racism and shittiness was always there but people kept more of a lid on it. We just aren’t able to pretend it isn’t who we are more broadly anymore.
Check the roots, you might have pests eating the roots. Could also be too much watering. Hard to say from photos but I definitely think something is wrong below the surface