Children are Different Nowadays--Or are They?

In listening to different radio programs, hearing the opinions of individuals, and reading various books, a consensus I am hearing is that children of today are different--than they were in the past, that is. The sources argue that it is hard to raise children in the way they used to be brought up because children have changed; thus, methods of raising them, disciplining them, teaching them, etc., should be different to adjust to the times.
I say that children have not changed--the culture has.
Yes, the problems that children have and cause today are much more severe than even as short as 20 or 30 years ago. However, drawing the conclusion that this is caused by a difference in the children themselves is erroneous. I am no doctor or psychologist or anyone else who may study behavior patterns and tendencies in children, but I was fairly recently a child, and have younger siblings and have been around friends with numerous younger siblings, and so I have observations to pull from.
Children are pliable yet resilient; they can adapt and adjust to many different situations and similarly hold up under difficult circumstances. These characteristics can also make them vulnerable: they can be easily influenced and led in one direction or another, causing far-reaching consequences in the course of their lifetimes. Also, children are different, but in another way altogether than is being argued by said sources. No two people are exactly alike, and that starts at birth. Nonetheless, these inherent differences in makeup and personality are not the sources of the rampant problems we observe today with alarming frequency.
The differences observed and referenced in these commentaries and whatnot seem to overlook the slew of inputs being foisted upon children today. Television programs, television advertisements, the Internet and all its components, good and bad, movies, music, books, schools, and numerous other subtle mediums inundate most everyone in the world, and the effects of this inundation are seen most strongly in the younger generation. Yes, parents try to "raise their kids right," but when their sphere of influence on their own offspring is limited to the time it takes to shoo them out the door, backpack in hand, to be nurtured by the state for seven hours a day, sandwiched between 45-minute rides on buses full of similarly-situated peers, and the time between their return home with "homework," possibly a meal as a family, and then bedtime, the influence they have on their children is minimal at best! Add into the equation the fact that while homework needs to be addressed most evenings, the television gets a fair workout as well, pouring messages into their eyes, ears, and minds whether they acknowledge the transfer or not.
What does this translate to?
Children are different today because of the way they are being shaped during development, not because of any difference in makeup between the children of today, those of 20 years ago, and those of the 19th century.