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The main cause of the problem is probably the widespread availability of cheap processed food in the US and, increasingly, other rich countries. I would support regulating these foods, but that would be very politically difficult and it would probably take many years for regulations to gain enough traction to make a difference.

We know from behavioral genetics that, for people in the same environment, individual differences in obesity are about 70% heritable. And there's loads of evidence that the standard "diet and exercise" approach does not lead to long-term weight loss in the vast majority of people who attempt it. (It does lead to shorter-term weight loss, but then people regain the weight, for biological reasons.)

So, short of massive regulation of modern "food products", the only options are either bariatric surgery (which does produce long-term weight loss) or some new intervention. The GLP drugs are the most promising candidates in that category.

I agree that there's too much triumphalism about these drugs at the moment. We don't really know yet whether they will produce long-term weight loss without serious side effects.