I've been a teacher for 25 years now - in middle school that entire time. In the last few years, the changes have become really noticeable - really since COVID. Students no longer want to try to learn. They want the answers to be given to them for memorization only. Completely risk averse. Last year the lack of social skills was shocking too - things I would expect in preschool that 7th graders were doing (cutting other people's hair, knocking over water bottles on purpose, damaging clothing or other personal items, etc.)
I really think the attention span is nil as well. Constant input, little to no creativity, attention span of only a few minutes. Not wanting to think - I had kids asking me how to answer multiple choice questions because you can't draw lines on the answer sheet.
BUT - I also have kids that are more accepting of differences. Racism has decreased so much. We have girls on the football (American) team and boys in cheer. Kids will come up and talk to me about how Joe broke up with his boyfriend Steve and not be wigged out about it. Kindness is actually more than norm than it was 25 years ago and 'gay' is no longer a slur. I've worked with two teachers who were married that were both female and my vice principal was openly gay. Kids had no issues with that! We still have some mean kids, but a larger percentage are kind and the mean ones are not as popular as they once were.