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In the first half of the 20th century, American physicians enjoyed relative freedom from adverse comment in mass and highbrow media. In unexpected ways the physicians' high ideals and the campaigns against socialized medicine brought criticism not only of the priestly but also of the technical functions of the medical profession. In the late 1950's this led to a campaign to modify the elevated position of physicians in American society.

The concept of the sick role entered sociology in 1951 when Talcott Parsons creatively separated the sick person out of the doctor–patient dyad. The idea became fundamental in the subdiscipline of medical sociology. By the 1990s, the concept had almost disappeared from the research literature. Beyond the generational and theoretical changes that explain how the sick role idea could become irrelevant or unnecessary to sociologists, there were two immediate factors: the negative politicization of the concept and the shift of medical sociologists to a focus on applied health behavior. In the later, fragmented discipline of sociology, final, total abandonment was still uncertain.

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