We are the playerbase.

If you think that the way people treat each other has changed in any significant manner, you're either idealizing the past, or haven't played long enough to know different.

There have always been jerks, elitists, noobs, confused people who think they are on xbox live or WoW, and confused people who think MMOs are a form of free psychiatric help. There will always be those kinds of people.

Go forth and dare to be different! Offer to team up. Do something else if the jerk coefficient gets too high at a NM. Toss people cures and offer to help when someone is struggling. It may seem like a wasted effort at times, but it's not.

Anecdote:

My friend, back in the day, wanted a joytoy for his rdm. There was a JP duo camping it against with us. They claimed it when Charby popp'd. At around 50%, charby ate them. My sister raised them, we claimed and offered to team up. We lotted on the sword and the JPs won -- and stayed while charby popp'd again.

Even today, whenever I'm soloing a lower lv job, I've gotten cures, cheers, and buffs from random people walking by. The good outweighs the bad. If you don't like how some people are playing the game -- make an effort to be different.

We are the playerbase, not some amorphous, outside creature that we can't influence.