Debates about public (and even private) morality are curiously selective. This is often not because anything has been done which is illegal, "dirty" or clearly offensive, but because something has been done which does not quite fit. Appropriateness is an issue with real pain and real argument attached. The difficult point in many moral mazes is deciding when something that was acceptable has become unacceptable, or why something which was acceptable in one situation is unacceptable in another.
Public interest depends on private virtue. A good society, and notably a free society, depends a great deal on the moral sense of individuals, namely an intuitive or directly felt belief about how one ought to act when one is free to act voluntarily. This moral sense is not always strong enough in every aspect to withstand a pervasive and sustained attack.
Ethics cannot be enforced by laws only, because in a legal-minded society too often bad laws legitimize any activity not made illegal and because the norms must be absorbed.