This "shift" can be directly linked to increased communication capabilities. Everyone suddenly got their voices amplified. Both the bullies and the victims went into a screaming contest and the victims won because most people agree that bad things are bad. The bullies are still screaming and the other end of the spectrum tries its best to silence them with even louder screams. This screaming contest has become really popular so people try to outscream everyone for social credit. And since the endorphin rush of social gratification is quite addictive a lot of people took it too far and went into their own echo chambers for continuous screaming orgasms. And what do you do when you're already screaming the loudest and no bully is in sight? You just invent bullies so you have more fuel to scream about.
This wouldn't be such a big issue if world wide governments hadn't stepped up and chose sides in the screaming wars. Now with politically endorsed screaming it gets even more addictive while also having massive power on its side. So now it's spiraled out of control and will continue to do so until the next crash or until we all live in a perfect dystopia.
Political correctness isn't the problem. Certain rules are good when communicating politely and efficiently with others. The problem starts when you give every single person the right to decide what is and what isn't offensive, or even worse try to politically enforce certain offenses over others.
If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.
