Hello,
Call it spiritual or religious, your question is quite clear, Inconjunct. I have wondered about that myself, too, though along slightly different lines. I also think that because of the repeated misuse of the word: religion ((due to malpractices done by man under the name of religion (because man uses everything to his advantage and to gain power) not that any religion preaches such things)), spirituality was the next word closest to religion that then set in as almost a trend. Please, this is just my opinion with no offence intended. It is somewhat like the big wave of 'Buddhism' in the West. For some of us, it almost became like a fashion to say (when I don't go to the Church or Temple for whatever reasons), I am a Buddhist. Not sure how many even know the full name of Buddha, or what he actually preached.
Back to your question, I was once reading about mass Karma, and, I think that is one of the reasons that could come close to answering your question. Perhaps, astrologically you can see it in the charts with strong aspects of the Nodes, Plu/Sat (related to Karma) to the Moon (masses in Mundane Astro). It could be that when something, over the years, went wrong when the land was once thriving, and that 'wrong' was practised by the masses, it resulted in mass Karma, the brunt of which perhaps many generations then have to then bear. Also, they say that suffering alleviates sins (you suffer for your sins, and, that way, free yourself of them, and lighten your karmic package).
When you thrive, and, what seems happy can also result in committing more sins. We see many economically prosperous nations, where other kinds of crimes are committed, and, when many people in this country, as an e.g., enjoy a certain basic standard of living, they mostly don't 'bother' with spirituality. Their focus is on amassing more and more (money attracts money, success attracts success, and that's what is happiness to most), so this 'mass' of people (or nation) would then be filling their karmic package with some negative karma. Earning more, as an e.g., is not negative Karma, but when greed, corruption, selfishness set in, and, when we don't share our haves with the have-nots, we gather negative Karma. And, so, the cycle goes on. God has His own way to balance things and the Law of Compensation is always at work. Sometimes, this is not clearly visible rightaway, but then you don't always pay for your sins rightaway. Sometimes the past good Karma lasts long to protect you (on a macro level, a nation) from what other nations seem to suffer: hunger, disease and natural disasters. But everything is a cycle, so I do believe that better days will come also for the poorer nations.
AQ7