Levels, not rates. Rates are largely about the police trying to look good in numbers. It is seriously difficult to quantify these things properly.

There are victimization surveys that verify lower crime levels apart from amount of crime that the police deals with.

We can discuss whether it's lead or the new clever crime fighting techniques that's the cause for lower violence but the expert consensus on the subject is that crime is down just as the expert consensus on global warming is that temperatures are up.

but yet it affects middle-class people far more, from their angle of life experience life got more dangerous.

How do you know?

Formality is a way to avoid the kind of offense that gets retaliated physically

But it's not the only way. I rather have a culture where people hug each other, are nice to each other and also openly speak about their concerns when that makes other people uncomfortable.

It might be that you personally prefer formality but other people don't. Don't project your desire for formality onto other people. It's a right wing value and right wing values lost ;) Right wing values losing is no reason why an idealistic youth should be pessimistic.