people try to judge the rules of ancient times with the conditions of the present times , that is the fault.
It is the same in various matters... we judge other countries by standards of our country or religion. Place and time and circumstances have to be taken into account.
We should be thankful to our ancestors. Many civilizations came up and perished in time and Indian culture and civilization prevailed for thousands of years in spite of invasions by many nations and religions and world wars... we should bow down to the genius of the sages. Where are the Greek, the Roman, the Egyptian civilizations?
Manu and other sages were mantra drashtas, seers, they have seen the past present and future with the power of yoga and gave rules impartially.
Those people would give up kingdoms and go to forests to find the truth and such people are thought of as vicious and partial by uneducated minds.
just as a cloth merchant can tell the difference between counts of thread in different cloths and ordinary people cannot, People who practice religious disciplines like Brahmacharya understand the genius of those sages. Those who try to know god, understand the principles in the Dharma sastras.
People who live a sensual life cannot appreciate them.
People don't know their history also. There are Vedic seers who were women(authors of vedas so to speak). Most people don't know that. If one reads the upanishads one seems female seers debating philosophy in courts of Kings among a thousand scholars.
Of course, for the past 1000 years the teachings have been corrupted. It always happens and in all countries. Thanks to degenerated form of Buddhism the barbarous customs of various countries came to India and plunged them in degradation and we are still recovering from them.
Also, out of aristocracy and one should blame women also. Unity is strength. The gods should be worshipped, say the Vedas because they are united in thought.
Now in our country there is jealousy, if one mans tries to do something, he is dragged down. We see small islands making great progress because it is easy to make them united for a single purpose and bigger countries are difficult to control. People divide themselves based on caste, region, language and fight with each other. Women cannot come together also under a united purpose and blame men for it.
If one reads the teachings of National leaders one can get a good idea about the problems faced by our country and how everything came to be.
Swami Vivekananda explains in his lectures "From colombo to Almora" about what kept India alive and how the different degradations came to India. what rules helped us, what kept us down in the recent millennia and how to overcome degradation.