the.com/degeneration

means A decline from a higher or more controlled state to a lower, worse, or less functional one.

from Rooted in Latin degenerare — 'to depart from one's race or kind,' built from de- ('down from') and genus/gener- ('birth, stock, kind'). Originally it described a noble lineage losing its quality, breeding gone to seed. By the 19th century scientists and social critics stretched it to biology and society — cells degenerating, civilizations supposedly degenerating — often tangled up with ugly pseudo-scientific baggage. The word still carries that charge: not just change, but a falling away from what something was supposed to be.