Unfortunately, child selling is the 'default' state of humanity. Our current regime in which we prioritize children staying with their birth family (which is correct, in my opinion) is novel and an aberration in the grand scheme of history. Despite all the claims that things are getting worse, we should always remember that things today are so insanely better than they were just a few decades ago that we cannot even IMAGINE how bad things used to be within living memory.
I'm quite conservative politically, but I will admit to bristling anytime anyone idolizes the 50s and the surrounding times. It was actually pretty awful.