I would suggest that another partial explanation is that many jobs and businesses don’t involve work that feels purposeful because the work has no purpose. Too many jobs exist solely to make more money for CEOs and investors. They don’t sell anything that helps society. Employees don’t benefit directly from business improvements, and those same CEOs justify all of the efforts by talking about how much the stock price went up. That seems to be the entire point of the organization. That’s the purpose. 

It’s not easy to feel like your work has a purpose when the real purpose is to make some number go up. It’s hard to be engaged with that.