I think there’ll be plenty of people here to defend actual gentle parenting which isn’t letting your kids run around with zero boundaries, consequences or care or concern for others.
Permissive parenting is an issue but I have some empathy for these parents too: I think lots of parents get very little time with their kids and, when they are with them, don’t want to spend the whole time battling (which can be what’s necessary sometimes to be consistent). Maybe that’s in the afternoon/evening when kids are tired, maybe that’s on a holiday or out at the weekend when they’re in unfamiliar settings (restaurants). I think there’s elements of guilt, pressure to have SM worthy family time, and a whole load of trying to do the right thing. People seem generally burnt out at the moment with work, parenting, finances etc. It’s a lot of stress and there doesn’t seem to be any genuine help for parents day-to-day.
I also think a lot of parenting tips on SM give people too little context for how certain approaches should be used. people watch 30secs of great advice but don’t get the extra info on what else needs to be in place for it to work.
And, of course, there’s a bunch of parents who literally don’t give two hoots about their kids’ actions (as has always been the case) and will let them do what they want, when they want.
I think a lot of parents are really trying their best though, they just don’t have the capacity or time to do the very hard job of parenting. And because parenting through fear (shouting/hitting) isn’t acceptable anymore, there appears to be more challenging behaviour.