Flexible morals, perfunctory religion, populist standards and cosmopolitan tastes

From Look It UP! Check It Out! by Jacques Barzun.

In advanced civilizations the period loosely called Alexandrian is usually associated with flexible morals, perfunctory religion, populist standards and cosmopolitan tastes, feminism, exotic cults, and the rapid turnover of high and low fads—in short, a falling away (which is all that decadence means) from the strictness of traditional rules, embodied in character and enforced from within.