The condition of the Nephites ironically mirrors the condition of Laman and Lemuel. Laman and Lemuel had seen angels, and witnessed the miracle of the director. In spite of all of their spiritual privileges, they were angry when they were corrected by the Lord through Nephi, and turned their anger on Nephi. Their reaction to correction was to be angry with the messenger, just as these Nephites were angry with Mormon when he corrected them.
For Laman and Lemuel, the explanation was that they had become “past feeling.” (see 1 Nephi 17:45-48). The Nephites of Mormon’s time had come to suffer the same malady. The Spirit of the Lord ceases to strive with us only when we completely shut it out. When the Nephites became like Laman and Lemuel, with hearts “past feeling,” then they had hardened their hearts against the Spirit, and it could not longer humble them – only anger them.