The Bush presidency and the subsequent Obama presidency made a lot of younger people a lot more liberal. Basically before the 2004 election, there was very little correlation between youth and partisanship
And for the most part the bush administration made strong appeals to older voters with Medicare part D and not pursuing fiscal austerity as some republicans wanted to do so.
Also, young people have trended pretty substantially back to the right since the Obama years, when the "hope and change" messaging was more powerful.
Keep telling yourself that. You've admitted you live in a bubble before, and this it it coming through again. Abortion rights and such are as popular as ever among younger people. In 2012, Obama won those 18-24 by a 60-36 margin (D+24) and Biden won them by 34 points. Some rightward shift.
Look how the 18-29 voters from 2008 voted in 2020(when they were 30-41). There was a massive shift to the right.
