According to literally dozens of Canonized Saints, Blessed and Venerable (who are prophets who enjoy Church-approval - the era we are living through now is going to come to an abrupt end (attempts at World Govt., etc.) and the Age of Peace will ensue. After that Age of Peace - they all state that then and only then does the Anticharist make his appearance.
Now - that is looking at things from the perspective of 'private prophecy' from many dozens of Saints, Blessed, and Venerable and other Church-approved prophets.
From the perspective of Public Revelation - we are told and the Church teaches that first the Gospel must be preached to all the nations/peoples. The Holy Father and Church History teach us this has not yet occurred - not even close.
After the World has been totally evangelized - which the Holy Father has repeatedly stated will occur sometime in the Third Millennium - then we have to go through the Apostacy - which St. Paul teaches us the faithful must precede the coming of the Antichrist.
As to your last question - I deal with the attraction of believing the Antichrist is coming at any time at length in 'Trial, Tribulation & Triumph' (TTT). If you have not read it - you will find a full discussion of this subject in there. Every single century has had false deluded 'alleged' prophets claiming they were told the Antichrist is either already here - or is about to come.
In every century, there have been people wildly enamored of listening to their false prophecy - for reasons I discuss in depth in "Trial, Tribulation and Triumph"
BTW, I discussed in TTT the fact that there were current prophets claiming the Antichrist would make his actual appearance by the year 2000 - or by the year 1998. I was the only author to write a major book on the subject who came right out and said that could not possibly be so. I put my reputation on the line by stating that.
How did I know??? Because the signs given in Scripture and Tradition and found in the writing of the Fathers of the Church from the Apostolic Tradition clearly delineate certain events which must precede that Antichrist. I knew all those thing could not happen in the five years between 1995 (when I was writing that part of TTT) and the year 2000. It was a no-brainer.