I'm not sure about cowardice, but I do think it's led to poorer social skills. I blame smartphones more than anything else, though.
In the US at least, I've noticed that younger people are always staring at their phones, and in most social situations... everything is becoming highly structured. I'm seeing more and more gatherings where people insist on holding and passing around some kind of stick to imply it's their turn to speak, and they all get really mad if someone speaks out of turn. In fact, I see people texting each other while they're in the same room together, and often just sticking their earbuds into their ears while other people are talking because they don't care what anyone else has to say.
The attitude I notice is that people really just don't want to deal with each other anymore. They have a very narrow circle of friends that may not even be physically near where they live. They're detached from their communities. Most people do nothing but complain about the people that live around them, if they mention them at all. They matter only in a negative way.