Joy, it seems, is everywhere these days.

It is used to sell boxes at Ikea. It is included in ads for drinks at McDonald’s and as a prescriptive for female hygiene. There are T-shirts that tout joy as “an act of resistance.” There is the “Chasing Joy” podcast. And a number of books are being published this year devoted to joyful living, including marriage, productivity, even how to live more like Hugh Jackman.

But if joy is everywhere, why does happiness feel so elusive? Haven’t we learned anything since 2014 when Marie Kondo taught us that cleaning our closets was a path to bliss? Well, so much has changed since then. Politics in the era of President Trump has divided Americans into two camps: angry and angrier. Our world is threatened by climate change. And the booming United States economy is showing signs of fatigue.

It is no wonder then that people are calculating well-being in mere moments. “In an age of despair, choosing joy is a revolutionary act,” said Douglas Abrams, an author of “The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World,” a 2016 best seller he wrote with Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. Joy is more attainable, he said. “Happiness seems like it is outside of us, in some perfect moment.”

So, are we living in a post-happiness world? According to the World Happiness Report, which ranks 156 countries based on inhabitants’ perception and well-being, happiness in the United States is declining. Americans said they were less content in 2018 than a year earlier, ranking No. 19 behind Australia and Canada. The 24-hour news cycle, combined with the onslaught of natural disasters, social upheaval and political strife, has left Americans exhausted. Worse, the agita shows no sign of abating; psychologists suggest anxiety is on the rise.