Personal theory is that we aren’t taught how to handle conflict and confrontation in a healthy way. I worked in education for about a year and a half and I saw it first hand that kids are not taught healthy ways of communication and confrontation. It’s either “oh just let them play with you, be nice!” or it’s “just find some other friends to play with!” until it boils over into a slap fight. I always tried to get kids to explain why they didn’t want to play and try to work through it because it’s a growing experience for everyone involved. Most educators are too busy, too burnt out to usually do that though. Hell, after a while I got burnt out trying to give my all and eventually left. I will say this, ghosting is inconsiderate, but for women and other vulnerable romantic groups I can see why they’d rather completely disengage than maintain contact which brings us to another discussion about consent and communication and when to recognize you’re becoming threatening. Again, this would be great to start teaching at a young age in the scope of friendship but we’re back to educators being burnt out, busy and hounded by administrators and parents (e.g. these kids need to be crammed full of temporary information for testing so we get funds and, my child doesn’t need you to raise them even though I have no intention of raising them save for maybe feeding and clothing them because I can barely keep body and soul together...and the ugly cycle repeats, so yeah, ultimately it does kinda come back to the massive social failures linked to capitalism.)