Sadly, I think it's got worse.
I have been working in schools for the past 7 years, when I first started the kids were, by and large, quite compliant when you asked them to do things. Nowadays if I ask them to do something (I teach cycling proficiency in schools to 10 - 11 year olds durung the summer) it's not unusual to be told to xyz off (insert your own expletive of choice!) and to be threatened by parents the following day, when little Johnny/Jane has had a chance to go home and bleat to it's parents.
It seems that the children of today are everyone elses problem when things go wrong - just blame the schools and teachers, social workers etc - it's so much easier than the parents having to do anything! I bet most of the kids in Matt's first post didn't have much parental input, they need strict boundaries and good role models IMHO.