I believe the reason why it has gotten so bad about people asking for compensation is because of the way airlines treat their customers with regards to charging them for every little thing, whether it is food or luggage or change fees (sometimes the change fee on a discounted long haul business class ticket is 100% of the fare, I learned this the difficult way).

When the airlines become completely inflexible to most passengers, and they've paid what seems like a gouging fee for an extra, the passengers are ready to return the favor to the airline and charge them a fee for each mistake they make.

That's my take at least... when an airline treats me like a loyal customer, I'm much more willing to overlook reductions to my quality of service, but when they gouge me for every little thing, I'm a lot less tolerant.