The re-potting hypothesis fails because there was no mobility decline to explain away.

Evidence

It seems plausible that the automobile, suburbanization, and the movement to the Sun Belt have reduced the social rootedness of the average American, but one fundamental difficulty with this hypothesis is apparent: the best evidence shows that residential stability and homeownership in America have risen modestly since 1965, and are surely higher now than during the 1950s, when civic engagement and social connectedness by our measures was definitely higher. — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, 65

Categorization

• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 65

Related

• American residential mobility is lower now than it has ever been (similarity 0.82)