Weddings and funerals are the only places where it's still required, and there's quite a bit of bad behavior around both. What those have in common is that no one wants to go to them. That's not the same thing as choosing to go to a place where you're intentionally participating in a social act larger than a family gathering, with people you don't know, and where you're making a statement beforehand that you're a person of standards acting on your best behavior.
Surely that in and of itself exactly proves _my_ point - it doesn't matter that you're forced to dress up and be respectful, the person doesn't beget the clothes. What matters is the intent that you've made a decision to go to an occasion that demands respect.
> You will be surprised how you're treated if you dress well.
Having been forced to dress up for various events over the years, I can't say I've noticed a difference in how I've been treated when dressed up vs when in my civvies. One thing I _have_ noticed is I am treated more formally - don't confuse formality for being treated well. Formality means procedure and rituals. Being treated well means care, politeness and attention to detail. If you're on an easyjet flight from London to Alicante, no amount of dressing up is going to get you any better treatment. Similarly, if you fly business class Emirates from London to Dubai, as long as you meet their dress code you'll be treated like royalty - the difference is how much you're paying.
Here's an experiment for you - go into the fanciest bar in your town, order two beers and tip the bartender $50 and see how well you're treated for the rest of the night. Speaking from experience (accidental - stupid american notes are all the same colour), you will get the service you _want_, not the service they _offer_.
> I think you're willfully missing the point I'm making, which is that the act of putting on better-than-your-usual garments is just one part of a whole set of customs which signal behavioral ideas that society has completely chosen to forget.
No, that's not what you said. You said, and I quote:
> I remember my grandfather in Vegas lamenting that allowing people to wear trashy street clothes or anything less than formal wear / suit and tie into the casinos, or on airplanes, would lead to more and more bad behavior.
That's not claiming that society has chosen to leave behind the customs associated with formal dressing, that's saying that the decision to do so has led to more and more bad behaviour. I _do_ agree that society has decided to leave behind those customs, but that in and of itself has not caused more bad behaviour. The advent of cheap air travel is almost certainly the single biggest cause of behaviour changes in air travel, and the increased individualism is (IMO) responsible for the changes in other areas - to use your magic castle example again, the reason people _behave_ there is because they have their invitee's standing to uphold. Remove that, and the magic castle becomes just like any of the other expensive bars in the area.