The advent of credit by mainstream and everything and anyone has led us to where we are.
I am not sure what regulation and passing out licenses to anything that could breathe and place an inked thumbprint on the application form did, apart from turning a socially undesirable and frowned practice into one which is now mainstream.
Neither did elements such as promoting the notion of credit as a primary means of economic growth help the cause.
Using regulation as a legal and justifiable defence the banking system was able to take in savings of £10k and using that as collateral issue £100k in debt - after all this what he authorities had promoted.
The public just lapped it up and moved up through the consumerism gears so such as place where people would actively sit down and plan to borrow, to feed, clothes, bed and bring up our, yet to be born children.
Until we shift the focus away from consumerism and bring the focus on real economic growth and go back to the likes of social banking (building societies, co-operatives etc), then it can only get worse.
Granted we cannot stop a runaway train but we need to slow it and change direction. The first step would be to take a very careful look at the banking sector and slow down (not stop or we shall have another GFC) the cheap and fascicle lending with no collateral apart from other IOU's.

Until a formal full loan application is made you won't know the actual interest rate that you'll be offered.

Loan books are written at the macro level not on an individual person basis. Commercial lenders constantly tailor their rates in line with their risk appetite and desire to underwrite new. business. As with mortgages funding is allocated in tranches.

In my area it is still cheaper to buy than rent but you will always have people who prefer to rent due to their personal circumstance, long live the renter.

I just tried the same loan application with Halifax and was offered 4.4% on a "highly likely" to be approved basis, which is odd as they are owned by Lloyds. Maybe it helped that I have a current account with them. So that's an effective real interest rate on an unsecured loan of about minus 5% at today's level of inflation.

I have a few credit cards, with a combined limit of over £50K, but only use them for the perks, like cashback, coupons, air miles, purchase protection, and fee-free overseas spending. They all get paid in full every month, and always have been, so I don't suppose that I make much money for the providers. I'm actually a bit surprised that they are willing to take so much risk on me, as I might be sacked or drop dead.

Taking out debt to pay for consumption isn't a good idea IMO but it is incentivised. We bought a new car a few years ago and when we offered to pay cash the salesperson was aghast.

"No one pays cash for a car these days" we were told.

We were told that it was cheaper to pay it off in instalments and the rate of interest was zero, and that's what we did.

My generation rarely used tick. We saved for something we needed. If we didn't have the money, we went without.

Most of the stuff people buy is unnecessary whether it's home delivery pizzas, new fashionable clothes a Netflex instalment, holidays or furniture.

Good quality furniture made from wood can be picked up in salerooms for next to nothing. Buying new clothes to be in fashion is a waste of money because they fall apart quicksticks. Better to set the fashion by not being in fashion.
Why pay £10 for a lump of dough with a few slices of tomato and cheese on top when one can cook a proper meal for about £1.50?
Why join Netflex when you can borrow a book from the library and listen to Radio 3 and 4 without having to pay the BBC licence fee?
Why pay through the nose to have a horrid time getting to and through an airport and then suffering from heatstroke, sunburn, an upset tummy and possibly Covid,when you travel abroad to some roasting hell hole, when you can go for a free walk in the British countryside?
Why pay for private education when the local Comprehensive will do a good job if your off-spring are reasonably bright?
Why pay gym membership when you can run up and down the stairs and use a couple of second hand dumbells at home?
Why spend so much on food when you can plant potatoes, cabbage, herbs and soft fruit in your front and back gardens, in widow boxes and in your allotment?

IMO we need to move towards quality of life rather than quantity of life and reduce our consumption levels and carbon footprint, particularly of imported goods.

We advised our daughter to take out a fixed interest loan 10 years ago when she bought her London flat. I seem to recall that the interest rate is 1.9%. We also advised her to pay off chunks of her mortage when she had the money. Her initial mortgage was £100k and it's now down to less than £40k.
We have been mortgage free for almost 30 years.

We spend very little. Our gross income is about £100k but we give most of it away.