Bus Stops

I was out walking this morning and happened to walk by the bus stop for elementary age children.  They were all in groups of families.  Parents were there with their own kids and then there would be another group of parents with kids, etc.  The kids didn't seem to know each other, talk to each other, or play with each other.
Picture this.  When I was in elementary school, the school bus picked us up within a block of my house.  I was one of the older ones by the time I moved to that neighborhood.  There were probably 25-30 kids that met there.  One parent would come, usually a parent of one of the younger kids to supervise.  All the kids played, sang, talked, and we looked forward to meeting there every morning.  We knew each other.  Played together outside of school and bus stops.
What happened to this?  The kids know each other.  They go to the same school, so why do they not play together and talk together and play jump rope together?  Our society is going downhill, and one of the reasons why is because we don't talk to each other.  We don't visit and socialize.  We need to teach our children to do this better.  We can "trust, but verify" people at least, can't we?  We are so afraid as a society to get to know people!  What is wrong with us?