https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/gold-convertibility-ends Among other things. The American war in Vietnam was also raging, and Nixon's war on Poverty was going as well -- this last matter likely resulting in some specific legislation that saw the drastic shift. And as others have mentioned, the old lunatic asylums (as they were actually called) weren't exactly a place you'd want to end up either. Prison may suck, but they tend not to actually lobotomize you at least.