Of course the West is spiritually impoverished.
It always was but that impoverishment became even more so as a result of the European Renaissance and the rise of left-brained "reason" as the presumed arbiter of what is True Real and even possible.
We now all "live" in and are trapped in a "world" created by left-brained reason. Some back-to-the-past Christian outfits even attempt to use left-brained reason to "prove" the various truth-claims of traditional Christian-ism - Let us Reason - Stand To Reason - Faith and Reason.
One dingbat Christian apologist even wrote a fatuous book titled The Victory of Reason.
For a superb closely argued description of the origins and all-encompassing cultural consequences of the "victory" of left-brained reason and how it has ECLIPSED the intrinsic intelligence of the heart check out the book The Master and His Emissary The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchrist - a book which took 10 years to write. In essence the book is very much about how we are now all trapped in the "world" of the Matrix Trilogy.

Trump was of course the inevitable outcome of many factors, two of which are "reality" TV, and the phenomenon described in the book by David Brock The Republican Noise Machine Right-Wing Media & How It Corrupts Democracy. Producing all of the dreadfully sane zombified ditto-heads propagandized/brainwashed by faithfully tuning into the message (massage). Right-wing Christian media helped create this situation too, especially TV.

This author has confused spirituality with culture.
Back to the drawing board!

'Could it be that Western Christians gradually over the past years have woken up to the fact religion is a scam, lead by hypocritical people.'

maybe Phillip S but only til you see how hopelessly bereft of morals secularism is. And as for the secular high priest one would be totally blind not to see their depraved nature. Why do you think they adopted the totally irrational big bang and evolution fantasies. A 2 year old could see what nonsense they are.

The U.S. electorate that a few years ago, when it had a highly qualified and experienced candidate in Mit Romney chose to elect an incompetent, racist, anti-American, climate fraud supporting, lying black dunce, , has evolved to electing a competent, honest, climate fraud denying, pro-American, over a criminal fraud supporting woman, This is encouraging, and something for which we should be grateful.

Mark has no valid basis for his pessimistic view, as we have emerged from a dangerous period in good shape. He should observe reality, instead of watching films and reading books, on which to base his misconceptions.

Philip S, you nailed it.

David

Whether you believe in religion, or spirituality or not, you cannot deny the reality that over millennia people have relied on faith in a superbeing to sustain them during times of extreme stress and trauma. Or even the small but accumulating daily woes.
Belief in rewards for living a virtuous life, belief that relief from oppression, stress, trauma, brutality, poverty etc will come eventually, even if it's after death, has sustained people through som horrific times and events.
Regardless of whether they are right or wrong, that faith has supported and enabled them to a degree nothing else can compare to.
You would have to wonder if today's youth have replaced that belief with drugs, because without that spiritual support, there is nothing to blunt the harsher realities of life, but external aids. Wasn't religion once referred to as the opium of the masses?
Good or bad, so far no one has found an effective substitute for a belief that no matter how bad life is, you are not alone and that life after death will bring relief.