Experts point to a variety of reasons for the apparent fall in civil standards:
1) The recession has placed many under heavy stress
2) The rise of the internet has fostered confrontational and provocative communications in which people get used to saying things they may never once have dared to utter face-to-face.

These may be conditions that allow rudeness to rear its ugly head, but they are not excuses for it.

Rudeness is rooted in lack of civility. If you don’t respect other people’s ideas, opinions, equality as compared to yourself, or simply their right to exist, it will be easy for you to resort to rudeness towards that person and you will be considered uncivil.

We have been losing our civility for a long time now and I believe it is due to a lack of respect for others and ourselves.

so true

There's a fine art to truly eloquent cursing, which Shakesperean drama hints at and was so effectively lampooned by the "French" knights in Monty Python & the Holy Grail. There's a cadence and a style that is vital to a proper chewing out that, all to often, is drowned by simple profanity. The best example in the modern age comes from this 1973 movie.

I certainly DO NOT blame the 'recession' for the coarseness of the conversation. I blame it on Television, movies, sports figures, and the internet, and the failure of others to condemn it. All of the trash-talk has become in vogue and the more vulgar the more attention the person receives. It's all about attention and publicity.

I heard that Marlene Dietrich once said that Americans all have their heads in the sand.

You got it right Jatfla. We are exposed to news that is just a series of confrontations and bad behaviour. Celebrities grow on it ( and then abuse the paparazzi for wanting more ).
What do kids have to look up to? Most parents are in "both working" situations or doing it hard in a one parent situ. Many grandparents do lots to help but that can take its toll ( as we just found looking after two of ours for a few days ).
I would not be surprised to see the same written about my country. The wrongly behaved are usually outnumbered by pleasant people who are not be "playing to the audience".

There is also the anti-war movement that sprang from the 60's youth which was far from selfish. The media ignores this area with a passion. Not to mention many democratic reforms that took place in those years that were rolled back thanks to Reagan and others.

The level of political civility is not all that is deteriorating. Take a look around and see the whole country is on that same path.

That anti-war movement was a media driven crock. My children actually believed that that's how everyone was in the 60s. NOT.

I second most everything dis said.

Opposition to the US involvement in the Vietnam War