When did graciousness take a turn for the worse?

I can't remember when 'you're welcome' and 'it's a pleasure' slipped away, but I know that now when I hear them, they are music to my ears.

How and when did 'we' adopt 'not a problem'? When did buying a service from people who are being paid to do it start to feel like an imposition?

For most of my life it didn't occur to me that shopping or ordering in a restaurant could create such universal difficulty.

'I'll have the orange socks, thanks'

'Not a problem.'

There I am, buying socks with legal currency. I could have brought my Monopoly money with me, which could create a problem. Orange socks could be a figment of my imagination, which could create a problem.

'I'll have the pizza margherita, thank you.'

'Not a problem.'

I could have said, 'I'll have the pizza margherita with the base on the side.'

Believe me, I can come up with any number of problems if I want to.

Maybe the waitstaff look at me (or not) and think of their high-maintenance customers. The ones who send their coffee back to make it hotter and less flavoursome, or the ones who object to the snails in their salad. Maybe they are reassuring me that my presence hasn't been a huge inconvenience.

It bubbles away and I say to myself I should adopt a more relaxed approach. What's wrong with 'no worries' and 'she'll be right mate'. It's that 'don't get your knickers in a knot' attitude.

And then I turn on the national broadcaster and the correspondent signs off her live cross with the ubiquitous 'not a problem'.

What can I say? Hakuna matata.