“The shidduch scene has gotten really strange in the last ten years. Can’t we come up with better solutions”
Yes, we can, but no one is willing to hear them. They are too radical, i.e. (gasp!) allowing boys and girls to meet each other at fun get-togethers (NOT shiurim, and not overseen by a Rov)and not going through shadchanim. Allowing boys and girls (even more of a gasp!) to actually talk to each other from the time they are little kids, through their adolescence, through adulthood, is even better, because it ensures that both sides learn how to socially interact comfortably and not awkwardly, in a normal way.