My son, (must be different to the secret grand- lovechild Cherokees on about cos he's 4
) has been brought up to say please and thank you. We are working on excuse me at the mo. He does sometimes get over excited and forgets, but a quick prompt brings the correct response. His first words (and I;m sure hes not the only one), were ma, da, and ta, so I'm not sure its right targetting the younger generation for the lapse.
I actually find the older generation worse than anyone for lacking manners. Its hard to teach a child the social niceties when you open doors for older people and they just barge through without a word. I dont know if older people are reluctant to respond through fear of engaging with someone or whatever.
My pet hate is when driving around, and if you let someone out, they dont raise their hand to say thanks, again the main culprits are older drivers. Winds me up badly, and I'm often tempted to give my own hand gesture just to remind them