It depends what one means by a "casual player." It's basically impossible to cross 1800 without investing several hours a day into chess (if that's what you are asking). That being said, I'm not exactly a "casual" player, but I've crossed 1800 without devoting my life to chess. To be fair, chess is a big part of my life, but I also have many things that are also a big part of my life and some of them more important than chess.
I'd say 1200 chess.com rapid is roughly when someone is leaving that beginner/lower level and crossing into that more intermediate rating level (despite the fact that the statistical average rating is about 660).
If you hit a plateau, then that just means that is probably where your chess ability is at now. To progress, you'll need a breakthrough of some kind, or the more likely is that you'll have to continue learning more (studying, adding patterns to your pattern recognition, incorporating new concepts into play etc.).
How do you get better? Is it watching YT videos? Reading books? Playing lots of games?
I must have played well over 10,000 chess games and it seems I platue around 1400-1500 if I’m grinding every day, studying, doing puzzles, and practicing against good players. If I don’t play for awhile and come back, I’ll drop back in the 1000-1100 range. Casually, it seems I’ll never break 1200 unless I’m willing to practice and study everyday.
it’s weird. Are chess players just getting universally better? Am I doing something wrong?
is there any way a casual player could get to 1800 without having to devout his life to the game? Or is 1200 the cap for the casual player?