Perhaps. If you ask me, that comes from the assumption that our society is more tolerant of certain subjects, like language or gore, than it was in the past. I can't imagine what the reaction to a game with as much visceral gore as Gears of War or Dead Space would have been 20 years ago. Today, it's not that uncommon. Back in the day Halo might have deserved an M in the eyes of the ESRB, but most people today would probably consider it a hard T. The ESRB just hasn't moved as quickly with addressing these tolerances, though they have relaxed some. It's worth pointing out that sexuality in modern games seems to be rated just as hard as it always was. That's a whole discussion in and of itself.