Perception is everything.If people think they're going to be killed or attacked the moment they step outside their front door, possibly because of lurid accounts of isolated incidents from other parts of Britain, they'll do so in spite of plain evidence to the contrary.The normal, and the improving normal, are not readily identified by accounts of incidents and they wouldn't sell newpapers if they were.
Anyway, older people have been saying their country is going to the dogs, and bemoaning the behaviour of the young, since at least the time of the Ancient Greeks.I'm old enough to remember them saying how much better things were in the War ! (Ah, yes, Grandad, you had lots of things in the old days we don't have today.Camaraderie,all pulling together, the Luftwaffe, rickets,rationing, TB, no NHS, yes, it was wonderful ! )