I would agree that more people seem to break the general decorum in the past few years than I’ve seen since I joined in 2013.
I can tell that I’ve become a little more bitter. I’ve been commenting much less, too. Spending time off of Twitter has helped immensely with my mood and quality of social interactions (I used Twitter for a spell back in the 10’s, mostly didn’t use it, then got back on in ‘19). My media diet generally seems to impact my mood to a great degree so by limiting my recreational media to HN + Geminispace + books + music (and TV/movies with family) I am much happier. I still use the Web for tasks, and having to block ads everywhere is a bummer but better than looking at them.
I suspect many other HN users are also subscribed to other forms of social media, like Twitter, that are overstimulating our amygdalas and giving us too much chaos to process while making progress in our own lives. These companies can’t keep growing in engagement without more people spending more time consuming stress-inducing content.
Hopefully the current mental health trend is more than a fad, we will see people start to take care of themselves, and maybe start to swing back the other way. I’m very excited about Gemini, actually, since the format and its current population encourage a calmer consumption experience. I hope more people check it out!