Flatbush,
You are wrong. There is an increase in chumras that the world did not see ever before. Like I wrote before, it could be the BT syndrome. Then again it could also be that with so many people sitting in learning, nobody knows halacha (after all they just learn gemarah 90% of the time) so they have to be machmir.
They had pictures in Europe, are we frummer than the Jews in Europe? (That is the Yeshivish trump card. I win.)