From what I've seen, all that has happened is that aggressors ("bullies") are better at hiding it.
When it was OK to beat somebody up (for pleasure or social status), they did that. Now, violence is being painted as the greatest evil. So instead they get pleasure and gain social status by less visible kinds of aggression, such as verbal, social and online abuse.
And, worse, the victims have a harder time fighting back because
- Fewer people notice the abuse - fighting is visible but veiled insinuations or in-jokes at the victim's expense are hard to notice and understand by onlookers.
- Responding to verbal abuse with physical retaliation would be seen as an escalation.
Verbal and social abuse always went hand in hand with the physical one. Physical bullying is just one tactic bullies used. The same bully that beats a guy always mocked the same guy and badmouthed him to others.
I am old enough to remember that bullying victims were blamed back then. The victim blaming was not a term yet, they were blamed for not fighting back. But if they fought back they were also blamed for the resulting ruckus.
The primary reason was that dealing with bully is hard. Blaming victim is easy.