>In a more humane age, they were housed in asylums.
Then Reagan happened.
No, the ACLU happened. Because of their efforts, it's much more difficult today to involuntarily commit someone to an institution who thinks that aliens are controlling their digestive system.
That's not to say that state governments weren't happy to empty out and shut down their mental institutions, however.
Actually, Big Pharma happened. And it was the left who argued that asylums were inhumane, more than the right arguing that it was too expensive. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was a real agent of change in how people thought about the problem as well.
Then Reagan happened.