re: Are crappy public high schools more lawless these days?

Kids will always misbehave, do stupid stuff and vent emotions or aggression. It's simply biological. Their brains have not fully developed yet and their bodies are raging with developmental hormones. That's why we call them kids and not smaller adults.

What has changed in the modern environment is the authoritative controls on this. In the past parents and teachers acted firmly (and collectively) in response to this. Now teachers are either afraid to get involved, or worse, chose the wrong side based on some misguided political allegiances. And the parents went from "hold my kid at the principals office because I'm coming down there to put his head through a wall" to "how dare you punish my child, this is everyone else's fault".