Not just engagement. Back when it was just a loneliness epidemic, there were talks of maybe bringing back third places, or changing society to help. Then it became a male epidemic, and suddenly it was someone else's problem, it's an individual issue, no need to make a cause of it.

There's a general loneliness epidemic, but there's a difference between men and women.

it is particularly male though because studies show older men don’t have friends

They were talking about it way before the epidemic. I remember at least as far back as middle Obama presidency that there was a show talking with one of his campaigners and they brought up the statistics on the number of people that would claim to have X amount of "close friends" declining.

There is a definite difference in the man/woman divide though on those numbers.