What's gone from the game is meaning. Most players are mimetic creatures who'll do loads of actions deemed good, if they see enough other people doing them and getting a nice reaction, but they won't know why they're doing it. Take kicking the ball out after an injury. The reason it's become such a ludicrously overused and abused gesture is because too few understood why they were doing it in the first place. It's the same with the risibly inane habit now of sneaking the ball out of the arc at corners - most of them still can't clear the first man, so they don't have any idea of a rational beneficial result that might come from it, but they're all at it these days, quite mindlessly. I suspect it wouldn't be that hard to get players to be more sporting - some good media coverage, better sponsorship deals, etc etc. But it won't mean anything.
