The courting culture and rituals are changing quite fast, when viewed in an historical context. The fact is that young people have only been left to find their own mates for a short time - a little over a hundred years - and the consequence of this may still have a long way to go. For this is occurring only in the advance world - the bulk of the people elsewhere still live in a world of arranged marriages, with the women's family providing a dowry, and the whole process is arranged by the parents. Courtship as we know it is nonexistent. We see a re-occurring clash with immigrants from poor parts of the world coming into our society - and their young people wanting to start doing what we do - which may result is serious violence against them - especially to the girls.
A brief history
The work of anthropologists found that simple food-gathering tribes had rigid marriage systems which were similar in different parts of the world. People married according to tribal rules, which generally meant they married a cousin, either from their tribe, or a neighbouring tribe. Occasionally in very lush environments children were left to form their own relationships, and the girl married whoever got her pregnant.
As these blossom into the early Greco-Roman world, successful tribes tended to have captives from wars, and warriors tended to have strict rules on marriage designed to keep the warrior caste pure. Other types of society continue as the food gatherers, or rules may provide that parent arrange marriages. In the Greek City States the concept of love appears among the wealthy.
These states became unified into the Roman world, where marriage was generally arranged by parents. But divorce was easy (at the will of either party), and love affairs occurred, with subsequent marriages for love. No doubt some courting occurred here - but details have not come down to us.
After this the western world sank into the Dark Ages, wealth levels and population fell, and a feudal world ruled by warriors occurred. Divorce became difficult under Christianity, strict rules occurred within the warriors to keep the caste pure, with warrior families providing dowries for their daughters. This meant that people married within their own strata in society, and generally only the eldest son who inherited the land could marry (even for high-ups). Little is really known of the conditions of bulk of the people - the serfs. But as late as 1800 in the UK people could not marry without the permission of their Lord of the Manor - people could only marry if they had enough land to support a family. This tended to be the head of a land holding family (a tenant of the Manor) with a women whose family provided a dowry - the women must bring economic resources into the household (she would take it with her if the marriage ended). People would only live in the family home (no building new ones), and the rule generally was that there would not be more than one married couple in a household. Thus few people had the chance to marry. So Affairs as we know them today were virtually unknown. Extended family living means everyone sleeping round the fire at night (except the head of the family who had a small chamber to sleep with his wife).
Conditions were harsh: no doctors, starvation common in early summer before harvest, poor housing. Life expectancy was short. In some environments the death rates for the sexes were very different - so some sexes might expect to marry a number of times. In Britain death rates from child-birth were very high. In mountainous regions men's death rates were very high - it is only from this type of environment that there is any historical knowledge of how the common people lived. There was a glimmer of friendship between couples out on the mountains - but that was as far as it could go. High ups (lords and priests) could have any lower class women they wanted, including married ones. Aristocratic women were known to take a fancy to peasant men (especially priests). But otherwise conditions were too harsh for much chance or opportunity for canoodling.
That is the sort of society we have arisen from not long ago. The Industrial Revolution from 1750 paved the way for the wealthy society we have today. Towards the end of the 1800s the grip of parents on their children weakened. It depended where in society you were - if you could move off the land to a new factory - which might also have provided housing - you had enough resources to provide for a family. You were free of your parents - especially as girls were working as well (only upper crust women did not work - peasant and working class women worked through out history).
Thus we can see that people being left to find their own mates is very short in historical terms. We have seen from the syndromes that our minds have substantial programming. People have been left to find their own mates without any education, with their minds programmed largely from a bygone evolution. Added to this the culture of the society was strictly moral. A girl conceiving out of wedlock was a virtual social outcast (the church often stepped in and dealt with the matter cruelly - her child was generally taken away from her) - the girl would often marry the guy. This had a large influence on the way courting rituals evolved - literally from scratch.
This is how courtship evolved
WW1 Courtship a person's own concern, some parental interference especially if wealth or dynasties involved - but becoming increasingly resisted.
1930s Courtship of increasing length & stages: Walking Out, Engaged, Married.
WW2 Concept of Boyfriend/Girlfriend - as temporary end in itself
Pill Dating, Going steady, Boyfriend/Girlfriend, Sleeping together, living together, engaged, married ... divorce...
Later 1900s Increasing proportion of marriages end in divorce, with increasing severe terms on the men (courts enforcing conditions of the wealthy where man supports the women - never been the case for bulk of people) - less men get married.
Now Dating (going steady, a few dates), boyfriend/girlfriend sleeping together, living together, partners with children, falling proportion married with majority divorcing.... dating. (No data on partners splitting up).
It does not mean that the current courtship is the end of the evolution. Clearly a trend is occurring now to remove the influence of the legal system - people (certainly men) want too arrange these affairs without the influence of men in wigs and gowns. There is the possibility of the marriage rite going to extinction - with a more fluid system taking its place - with little data collected.
Man is one of the small group of creatures who forms mating pairs. We must expect special programming in the minds of these creatures to bring this about. While our second study will attempt to find out about this, currently there is no information available to mankind. While for most of man's known history the rules of the tribe or society have arranged the selection of mates, suddenly he has been left to his own devices to do this himself - without any education, advice or knowledge of how to do it. We might suppose that his inexperience has resulted in man not making good choices, with the result that he often ditches his mate and starts again. The longer courting chains are a manifestation of people's experimenting in the hope of finding your life long mate. Will this eventually occur? So far the data does not support this - but we have no data on how long partners stay together.
Ease of meeting
In some respects things have got easier, in others they have got more difficult. Before WWII a girl of standing would have expected to be introduced before dialogue was opened with a man. This system was still largely operated by parents and family - in an attempt to control who their girls met. It severely restricted who might meet who, but nevertheless provided a framework in which the early difficult steps up the Catastrophe surface could be taken.
This system has largely been swept away by the practical fact that most young girls have jobs - which takes them out of their parents' environment and makes them independent of it. Girls want to find their own way around.
This has the disadvantage that the ready made framework for meeting people may be absent; and many may find that meeting new partners and climbing the Catastrophe surface unaided is more difficult today. This maybe compensated partly by the fact that someone may go out with partners from much wider backgrounds than before; and that girls nowadays will commonly take the initiative in the first initial steps - eye interaction, smiles, perhaps opening conversation (but not as yet offer a date).
Later 1800s. Courtship short and few in number per person. Divorce possible but difficult. Parents still involved but declining.