"How did we become so in need of mental health support ... it wasn’t always so ... is life and/or Covid restrictions really so brutal?"
First you suggest the mental health thing is merely an agenda-driven beat up.
Then when it is demonstrated to be quite real, you then question whether it is, in fact, warranted.
And, as for is it "really so brutal?", losing your entire life savings or your livelihood, or seeing your father abusing your mother, or seeing a loved one become dependent on alcohol, or having a constant worry that a son, or a daughter or a partner might take their own life.... yeah, that's decidedly brutal.
That anyone should even question that demonstrates a disconcertingly high degree willful ignorance.
