The top 20 percent of households by income are no longer feeling confident about economic conditions in the U.S. and are spending less, according to a quarterly survey of affluent consumers.

FORBES: Survey: Affluent Households Lack Confidence in the Economy

Late last year, opinion polls were showing that most Americans, feeling prosperous, no longer cared much about what was happening in Washington.

ECONOMIST: If it��s true, go

The decline of the female religious orders has left many women feeling that they no longer have a central vocation in a church that has always revered femininity in the form of the Virgin Mary.

WSJ: Daniel Johnson: A New Pope on a Pilgrim's Path

"Pilots no longer have the audible noise or that seat-of-the-pants feeling, " Sanger says.

FORBES: War Without Soldiers

The story begins with Iichiro waking up, looking at the clock, guiltily asking himself whether he might sleep longer, and feeling both anxious and depressed by the realization that he has no reason to get up.

FORBES: "Paradise Lost" -- Love, Retirement, and Marriage in Japan

They realize they no longer have the one, two, or three things that gave them their identity, or kept them feeling productive and part of something.

FORBES: How A Dead Laptop Can Help You 'Practice' For Retirement