Social: These verses highlight an important aspect of human behavior. The people of the Nephites have become transformed in their worldview and their religion. Samuel sees them as iniquitous, and rejected prophets of God. The people themselves, however, would see themselves as righteous and following the “right” way. Social change does not happen because people decide to reject all they have known and become wicked. Social change happens when we gradually accept certain ideas and practices that carry with then the seeds of our rejection of the gospel. After time, the foundational ideas that underlie the trappings we desire come along with the trappings and reshape our understandings. We fall away from God not only without realizing, but while we continue to maintain that we believe.
These Nephites clearly have done this. Samuel notes that they currently reject prophets, but they would compare themselves favorably against those “of old time.” In verse 25 Samuel notes that this people would assume that they are righteous, and they would never do as the wicked of old had done. The irony is that they are doing it, but their self-justification prevents them from seeing it. They believe they are righteous still.