The recession has encouraged marriages to improvise, because they have no choice.  Since the financial collapse in 2008 many semi-happy, but not totally miserable, couples have stayed together because they can’t afford to get divorced.  Or they can’t sell their homes or would lose too much money if they did.  So they continue to live together, apart.

Some spouses have an arrangement and are having affairs instead of getting divorced. Out of necessity, these marriages are living out a middle ground between a real marriage and a real divorce.