Art moves with the people, and the people move art, it has been the "great conversation of the ages" in images and ideas.  What happens when the wheels of progress ceases to move, or does slow at an artificial pace?  It is very much like a starved body, wherein society and culture isn't receiving the substance needed to thrive.  While it would be wrong and reductive to blame all of our woes on the lack of art, yet there are simple examples.  Through art, David Bowie created an iconistic form of androgyny.  It created generations of men and women breaking down gender roles and analogues.