It seems like this is something that is so hard to measure. How many people on this forum actually speak Russian and were around in 1990 to measure the levels of profanity? I find that American television at least is still quite tame. Most channels censor the "harshest" profanity. In any formal situations, it's almost always taboo for Americans to use profanity. I find that there other culture that swear a lot more. I have studied a little bit of Portuguese and it seems like people in Brazil are much more accepting of profanity.