3. To some extent I agree with you. I think the larger reason has to do with these "cheap" mega passes. Skiing had always been expensive and only the ones who really wanted to get into the sport did it for the love of it. A lot of the influx of newer skiers treat it as a way to party & socialize. They don't bother taking lesson to learn the proper way to ski/ride and never even heard of (or care about) the responsibility code. They're out there for themselves and don't care about the others around them. They're there to party and don't see anything wrong with going to the bar (or bring their own) and getting drunk or stoned and hitting the slopes.
Based on my experiences, a lot of skiers in the past treated skiing as a way to socialize.
Remember when Great Gorge was an adjunct to a "Playboy Club"?
Remember the concept of "the bunny slope"?
As to the responsibility code:
Remember the years of the "hotdoggers".
And then there were the early years of Snowboarders.
We survived them!
I sense that today's problem is personal narcissism fueled by social isolation, in part due to computers and in part due to the enforced isolation of the COVID years.
I see fewer hardcore Ski Bums today than 50-years ago, but there are still that core group of committed (or what I call, spiritual) skiers.
