> Smaller light-duty trucks were regulated out of existence by tighter fuel standards. Because regulations were made looser on larger vehicles, the easiest way for automakers to meet the standard is to build a bigger truck.
Also, it's a fine excuse, basically consumers avoiding responsibility for their own choices. `But it's the Fed's fault!` The size of current trucks and SUVs are completely sociopathic in most urban environments. Certainly because they're dangerous to other road users (as the current rise in fatalities bear out). And, if you wish, because they contribute excessively to carbon emissions. These vehicles don't purchase themselves.
We're trapped in a large vehicle arms race (cars are getting bigger too). Yes, at some level that has to do with ego, or at least, an atrophied sense of civic duty and responsibility.