The problem of autism & moral chaos

How much of what is currently diagnosed as autism or its near equivalents is actually the result of a defence mechanism against the moral chaos of modernity? How much of it is a veiled or displaced moralism, in the sense of an inability or unwillingness to encompass moral dilemmas & uncertainties? It may be, for instance, a defence against "attention deficit", simply a refusal to acknowledge value choices which the ego is not able to make? 

Whatever the truth of this may be, we need to consider carefully within the modern context the inability of the individual to empathise with the other.