I know how I'm perceived here, so I know there's a certain amount of irony for me to say this, but it's just my observations. I haven't been here as long, only around early 2010's. Yeah, I noticed a lot of change too and it's been for the worse. I am not sure why obvious trolls haven't just been given the boot; they just are allowed to fester for some reason. It's pretty rare for me to put people on ignore, but I have had to use it a few times now when I never felt the need to before. I occasionally check to see if anything was done and there hasn't. I think they get away with it because they very vaguely keep the topic to hockey, but in reality it's to just harass and derail threads.
I might get in trouble for saying this as well, but I think it needs to be said. Mods have shown a bit too much partiality to some posters, especially on the mains. Right now, there is a thread there by a troll who posted news that has almost nothing to do with hockey, but it's allowed to stay open (an anti-oiler troll who has started threads to shit on them before with similar, very loosely related "news" like todays with Katz). Before, a thread full of trolls shitting on Oilers with basically no actual discussion was allowed to fester, but when they started winning, it quickly got locked under the guise of it not being relevant anymore. So basically, for weeks, trolls were allowed to shit up the thread, but Oiler fans could never retaliate in any meaningful way because it was locked before they could. Those are just a few examples, but it's consistent. Pretty much why I don't post there anymore other than a few here or there.
And as for the idea that people are just getting meaner, I see it too. People in today's culture have an attitude of "can never do wrong" and it seems to be spilling into even such a small place like this. But yeah, I don't blame you, genuine discussion seems to be dying here. Just do what we do here and stick to our team board. It's almost the only real place you can get good insight on the team, both good and bad opinion.