> A common enough phrase with a dark meaning.
This is a sentiment that appears to me to speak to this time, where something crazy is in the air, and humans in their affluence have lost all grounding.
The phrase was in common use by 1915, with one of the first published illustrations being a 1917 song:
Over the Top (1917) lyric by Marian Phelps ; music by Maxwell Goldman. To view complete item as a PDF on archive.org 
or wikimedia 
The original phrase alluded to the enthisiastic, naive and perhaps insane rule-following acts of bravery (some would say folly) of going over the top of the trench straight into enemey machine-gun fire.
Lyrics and music from Over The Top.
You might like to sing along - though I can't find a recording online.
> Over the top. All the way > Over the top. In to the fray
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