Okay, this is only tangentially legal ethics: it happened while I was on a trip to speak on legal ethics.
I've taken about 10 plane rides in the last month, and the incivility that is rampant in our society just shocked me. Yesterday, for example, I was about to step onto the stairs leading up to the plane when my laptop strap caught on the handrail. The fellow behind me said, "Jesus Christ!" when he had to pause for, oh, about 2 seconds. Later, he said, "stupid bitch" when a woman was having trouble putting her luggage up. All of these things were easily heard by me, and her.
An isolated dolt? Onboard, I overheard a woman say to the man seated next to her, "Use your arm rest, not mine." At first, I thought "older married couple squabbling." But he responded: "You have b.o. I want a new seat." Soon she pushed the stewardess call button, and one of them was relocated, but not before she complained about how "fat" he was, and he called her "an asshole."
I could go on. It just struck me that the incivility we see in legal practice, and bemoan so much, is not much, if any, different than we see in every day life. I'm not suggesting that lawyers shouldn't behave better, nor that the presence of common, gross incivility excuses the profession's lapses, but surely the overall decline in simple politeness has a link -- probably both as a cause, and effect.
Anyway, if you see a connection to legal ethics, comment away.