Culturally:
Singaporeans are around 3/5 or 4/5 of total population. Of which, we don't know how much are 3/4 gen citizens and how much are 1 gen. Given SG birth rate of 1.2 I am guessing the number of 1 gen is significant. The lack of large base of local population means that there's no legacy of ethics to inherit. Compare that to Japan with 98% of population being Japanese, Singapore is already doing a much better job in terms of policing.

tl;dr: Singaporeans do not have an inheritance of ethics.

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Population:
Singapore's demographics shows that most Singaporeans are in their 40s or older. So if we back tracked it, they are born in the early stages of Sg, roughly 10 years after breaking away from msia. This means that they went through a life that isn't as gracious as what we have went through and in a sense are numb to some "civic-mindedness" issues the young care about. I don't think it's entitlement but rather a sense that if they lived a majority of their life being subjected to a subpar society, there is not much need to change since they kinda survived. Of course, if they survived thus far they have also somewhat a sense of achievement that sometimes run into entitlement.

The worst thing is that you can't significantly affect the character of a person once he goes into his teen. At least from what I know, languages and arts needs to be taught before the age of 5 for maximum effect. You can google wolf child for case studies of children who were unfortunate and missed the age of 5 mark. They no longer behaves like a "human".

So this group of people that has due to circumstances a less than desirable ethics will then impart their beliefs to the young.

So my experience is that some old uncle is against the return your tray initiatives since according to him, he paid for his food. When asked about the cost, he says the hawker should absorb.

Then most of the people who raised their legs to place on adjacent seats (around sembawang area) are actually middle-aged.