Unlike some I'm not shocked that people can act like arseholes under the right circumstances, so this is not really news to me. That you identify the withdrawal of labour as the peak of selfishness is not a huge surprise either.
Has 40 years of Thatcherism made people more likely to act like selfish arseholes? I can't prove it, wouldn't even really want to dwell on it with regard to the current scenario. But the government certainly presumed that everyone in the country would behave purely as self-interested individuals, which is the fundamental reason things got as bad as they did: they just assumed we wouldn't put up with having our lives curtailed for the sake of the old and the vulnerable, and didn't lock down when they should have. They've also spent the last 6 months telling us that we are at once horrible, selfish individuals and irrepressible freedom-lovers, and you can certainly see that (very Thatcherite) mix of resentfulness and stupid self-regard reflected in the mask-refusers and lockdown sceptics.
So, I don't know. All I can say is, if Britain hasn't become a country of selfish irresponsible arseholes it's not for want of encouragement.