Apologizing

I am going to start a little essay here on the decline of apologies in everyday life - especially as a customer of something.....
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Yesterday, I called the Herald-Sun to say that we had not received our paper for two days. I had gotten a phone message that our card did not "go through", so I mentioned this. After giving the woman my credit card, she said I could not do this - i.e., give her my card number. So I asked to be transferred to someone who could resolve this and please don't send me to someone's voice mail. She could not do that either, she said. Not once in this whole exchange did she utter the words, "I am sorry for your inconvenience" until I noted that she had not said this. Grudgingly, she mouthed the words, almost as though she was saying them for the first time!