People who have underpaid, semi-skilled service jobs requiring constant interaction with the general public are going to occasionally resort to power-tripping when they can get away with it. Imagine if terrestrial waitresses or bartenders were suddenly authorized by the U.S. government to eject patrons from their restaurant according to their discretion about safety risks posed to other patrons. Arbitrary restaurant ejections of drunks, loud and unruly and entitled families, and the moderately argumentative would immediately become a media theme because controversy / inflamed tempers / familiar grievances -> hits.

I haven't flown outside of business or first for at least a decade and like everyone else I get frustrated and annoyed by airports. But I can't even imagine (remember?) how a person who agonizes over a $25 checked baggage fee must feel about boarding last, or how dehumanizing it must be for a FA to enforce baggage gate checks on angry travelers with so little at stake. The opposing incentives and psychic friction are only accelerating as commercial aviation sector economics turns FAs into food and beverage salespeople and baggage police.

To properly answer the OP, yes, this is clearly getting covered more and further proof that there are no professional consequences emboldens more FAs to take out their (understandable) bad moods on people they just happen not to like. The truly bad actors from both groups (passengers, FAs) provide cover for these probably-avoidable escalations to end with police reports. It probably only ends at mood-detecting Robot FAs equipped with laughing gas and tranquilizer darts.