I agree that societal changes have meant people are less civil to each other. They are less face to face and simply more willing to be disrespectful to someone they don't see as a person, but just as an account on a forum.
Specifically regarding audio, the introduction of digital hasn't helped. There are a whole lot of people trying to apply analog logic to the digital world and rejecting the advice of engineers who actually understand it. There have always been tweaks and arguments over tweaks...cables, rocks, markers, demagnetizers, whatever...but now there is a whole new slew of tweaks for digital to argue over.