For once, I have to disagree with you.

People head to conspiracy theories in difficult times because they provide a solution.

Conspiracy theories provide a simplifying assumption for the world, not a distraction: in fact, catching one has you thinking about the world's problems even more than before. They offer a framework to neatly organize the problems, personalize them in the form of a few enemies (like Soros and the Clintons), and give you hope that a simple solution is possible.

For example, take... today! America is beset by problems on all sides — the pandemic, the collapse of the economy, massively corrupt government (the US came back from the brink there, luckily) and on a larger scale, the endless ruinous foreign wars, and the climate catastrophe.

And it's hard to see solutions to any of them.

But a conspiracy theory provides both a single, clear cause and a solution. If the issue is just "the deep state" then all you have to do is "drain the swamp" and suddenly it's morning in America.

The classic source on this is Hoffer's The True Believer which is a fast read and full of brilliancies, and just as valid as it ever was, 70 years after it was written.