Nostalgia can bring out golden memories. I recall bitter arguments and name calling from early days of social media and this site in particular. No doubt there has been change, likely mostly in me in that in my learning phase I used this forum as a resource, many of those members no longer here, sigh.
I agree civil discourse in general is on a downward spiral as people have become inured to all the fussing and fighting. For far too many free speech means exactly that, including being free of consequence. Well, sorry to welcome you to the human race but the things we say have consequence, and our present society/culture is one of those consequences.