It's shrinkflation. I'm not sure if it's different in other states but in my grocery stores there are two prices listed for every item. The price on the right is the cost of the item and the one on the left is the cost of the item per lb, count, etc depending on what the item is. Always pay attention to the left price as that's your actual value. I've seen some instances where buying the smaller box/package is actually the better deal. And for some products where you can get away with store brand you'll see again pretty big savings.

Unfortunately it's just a symptom of a nation going further in debt, a stagnant if not declining standard of living, overall savings among population going down and I'm sure many other reasons.