The op may well be right about this. Either way, I will likely regret commenting on it. But, in my view, it simply doesn't matter that much whether we have a norm of students calling profs by their titles, by their first names, or simply Mr. or Ms. X.
Few people (including few students) really believe that a person with the title of "professor" is thereby an authority on everything, especially on matters outside their field. On the other hand, I am skeptical that the title is really any longer essential for, say, female and minority profs to assert their authority in the classroom. In this day and age, they are hardly a novelty anymore at the vast majority of US universities. So I would urge a policy of live and let live on this. Each local academic community should have broad discretion on how to handle this, so long as the practice is consistent as between profs with different gender, race, etc.
When I used to be a teacher, I told my students to call me by my first name. They found it so uncomfortable that I eventually went back on that. I saw no point in continuing to push for this change when it had the opposite effect of that intended (it made things more awkward rather than less). On the other hand, if norms shift, and profs' honorific titles start getting dropped, I will be happy with that too.
Honorific use has largely gone away in the world of elite education outside of brick and mortar establishments. Even 20 years ago, when I worked for a famous partner at a major firm as a lowly summer associate, the partner insisted I call him "Ken," not "Mr. ______." I duly complied, and it was fine. Really!
