The "epidemic of loneliness" (in the western world) is a made up thing by the media. There is no actual data to support it, there is some data that shows the opposite.

There is some data that suggest very old people are more lonely but that might just be became on average they are much longer alive and independent after their partner dies compare to past generations.

Here is a short ~5min video about the topic https://youtu.be/rVsKWQp-sq4