Is it just me or has there been a decline in how effective "natural consequences" seem?

I'm a licensed therapist, and one thing in common with many of my clients is the term "entitlement" used to describe their children. Even in parenting interventions that intentionally use a natural consequence approach, and all of their interventions seem sound, they will fail.

In several cases so far, the child will misbehave, and then a consequence will follow. The child will then seem to link the consequence with the parent rather than the behavior being addressed even when told so explicitly. They will argue that the parent is lying, or simply wants to be cruel. Example, *a child is staying up too late to talk to friends, so has their phone taken at end of day to limit late night phone calls.* Boundaries and expectations are established. Rules and respect, and calm conversation. But then the child will escalate.

These are normally mid-teens 14-17 that I've noticed this. But, I feel like I'm not considering everything. I've staffed this, and will continue to do so of course. But, I usually get boilerplate responses, "well, kids are rebellious" or "its the damn phones/social media!" I know they of course play a role, as do peers. But, I worry that it's a systemic problem. Can anyone point me in the right direction here? Thanks!