Shifting baseline syndrome

Etymology

Fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly coined the phrase in a 1995 paper, observing that each generation of scientists accepted the fish stocks of their own early careers as the baseline, forgetting earlier abundance. “Baseline” is a surveying term for a reference line; the “shift” is the quiet resetting of it.

noun phrase · /SHIF-ting BASE-line SIN-drohm/
The gradual lowering of the standard for “normal” as each generation takes the degraded present as its starting point.
What it names
Why slow decline goes unnoticed — we measure change against what we remember, not against how things once were.
Example
Kids today think a summer with a few fireflies is normal, a shifting baseline that hides how abundant they once were.
Related idea
Shifting baseline syndrome is the generational forgetting of a former normal; the boiling frog is the fictional version of failing to notice gradual change within a single lifetime.