Let me give you a frame of reference; while watching programs like Downton Abbey or similar, we are reminded of the complex social customs that were in place, and are still in some circles, that most don't follow any more. Rising when a lady stands, the myriad titles and ranks and positions, this many forks and that many inches apart on the table, specific clothing for different functions of the day, -there seems no limit. While I know that in some circles, people do still follow many of these rules, in many nations -but it seems like in the past they were much more strictly followed and much more complicated.
Roughly when did such devotion to ritual begin and when did it reach it's absolute peak? What makes them wane when some of these rules have been around for a long time? I know such ritual occurs in all nations, but in the hopes of being specific for purposes of this sub, I'm selecting England's past because I have been exposed to much more of it than elsewhere. Was anywhere even more devoted to these rituals and rules? And finally, is there a field of study for these things specifically that you can point me to for more reading?
You're forgetting that the characters in Downton Abbey are very wealthy people, living at a time when the 1% was more akin to the .01%, and wealth distribution was incredibly skewed (erm... sort of like today?). Most certainly, a middle-class post-Edwardian family living in Leicester, Hackney, Sefton Park and other suburbs that sprang up thanks to the railway did not concern themselves with so much daily protocol. The working poor in Southwark, Manchester and Liverpool most certainly concerned themselves with even less protocol, although I guess there is an argument to be made that perhaps all sorts of people were better mannered in the past.
The structure and constrains of the Victorian Era in England are legendary, I think there is a Victorian historian on this sub who most probably can explain their development in more detail. However, the structure in the lives the upper-class has far deeper roots than the Victorian prudishness which was still going strong through the Edwardian Era, when Downton Abbey is set. In the previous centuries, from the lever and coucher rituals at Versailles in Anciene Régime France, to the Spanish Court which was so conservative and formal, Maximillian II was literally concerned about his son's aloof manner after he returned from eight years at the court of his uncle (Philip II), European nobility had always concerned themselves with protocol.
There are tons of online resources about Victorian-era etiquette and protocol if you're interested. I would just like to point out that "Ritual" is not unique to English culture. Gilded-Age US industrial barons (robber barons or not), and French, Spanish, Italian and Russian upper class families lived with just as much "structure" as the English, perhaps more in Southern European countries. In Italy, which is my area of expertise, "Il Galateo," published in 1558, set the rules for "Polite Behavior", laying down rules for things from conversation, to seating, to who enters a room first (in "informal situations", it's the men, as they need to "check the situation" to see if it's safe for the women). However, "Il Galateo" was just one of many etiquette manuals circulating in the late Rennaisance (another example is Castiglione's "Book of the Courtier"). Italian etiquette guides were being written all the way up to 1892, when the "Codice Cavalleresco Italiano" (Knightly Code of Italy) was published, and as Luigi Barzini reports in his 1965 book "The Italians", the section on dueling was still being consulted well into the 1960's.
The decline of the "Great House", and all its staff, protocol, and etiquette can be attributed to simple rising living standards and rising wages, which made keeping a large, full-time staff nearly impossible. Already at the time Downton Abbey was set, it was not realistic for many owners of great country houses to keep them open. After World War One, manpower shortages made it so difficult to staff great houses that many were demolished.