I'm going to blame Barnes & Noble in the US as partially to blame for this mess we're in now too.
Yes, at the moment Amazon is the evil empire but it wasn't long ago that B&N bought up good competitors that had club models and low priced books. They then shut them down and raised book prices. (In the 90s I could visit many brick & mortar stores and buy a new book for less than the cover price.)
#Books