holding it against each other

In the last six months or so, I have often been led to wonder if Londoners have become more irascible lately. Well, I am too young a resident of the city to compare its civility these days with that of bygone times. And I also know that the charm of politeness and a benign mutual indifference still holds in the city, a charm that I have increasingly felt falling for despite possessing my own 'stronger' Indian vocal chords and ear drums.

But there is something about the frequency of broad day light street fracas- not the friday night brawls, mind you-that I find hard not to make note of . Today, in Illford, I saw two perfectly weekend loving sort of gentlemen shoving each other and exchanging swear words even as shoppers around them stood watching. Somedays back, there was a long and not so pleasant argument between two gentlemen just outside of my window, this time on car parking in the street. Before that, once while in the tube , I found a person blasting what he thought was a piece of great 'music' off his earphones. When told to tone it down by one of our fellow commuters, his reaction was equally musical; "f'... off".
It is saddening..so unseemly for a city of such exquisite beauty and refinement. Or am I overstating my case; an error of pure randon sampling?