If a kid made a scene in public back in 1950, they would be smacked. In fact, in many countries in the world, people are still pro-smacking. Teachers can smack the kids with no moral issue.
Mental health for kids before 2000 was much worse... to be generous to the older generations.
kids also roamed on their own quite a lot more with other kids
The dual-income household expectation and collapsing middle-class (lost share of productivity) would be the most to blame from my perspective... there's also a major daycare shortage because of this, the lifestyle changed and surrounding factors haven't caught up. There are kids regularly staying at after school programs until 6pm because parents are working and no one wants kids wandering around on their own, even in teen years. My local mall has banned kids under 18 unsupervised as yet another example.