What happened to personal responsibility

Just been watching the national news which featured an item about a group of young men who died whilst playing volleyball at Camber Sands, they drowned having become stranded by tides. The coroner has said that the local authority had a duty of care and had failed! Why? Whatever happened to common sense, we are constantly being brought up in an environment which expects others to look after us from cradle to the grave. Call me old fashioned but surely life lessons are far more valuable than being wet nursed wherever one goes, but then I suppose where there is blame there's a claim.