I can't really say indifference is really the problem here because sometimes people really prefer it if you don't meddle with them specially in the west. I suppose - it would all depend on - what case - is at hand. Just like what you wrote - if someone needs help then - it would indeed be indifferent if the person obviously needed and everyone around him just turned their heads somewhere else. These days, people don't want to get involved with others and it does not necessarily mean they are indifferent, it's also possible that they've experience something bad from helping other people or they're just letting others be. In your example - the drunk man on the tram rail - I think him being on the rail already screams HELP - and so yes perhaps you can say the people are indifferent having seen him lying there and still not pull a muscle to at least get the guy out of the rail - or perhaps - they're preoccupied with the pressure they're facing on the daily basis - there's a possibility that they were all oblivious of the drunk man on the tram rail really. The truth is nobody knows. I guess, unless there's an obvious sign screaming for help it would just be meddling.
I had a guy friend back who was accused of having committed act of lasciviousness for helping a sleeping woman who almost fell face first on the jeepney they were riding one night. He just pulled the woman's arms to get her back her seat and not bang her head on the metal floor and she started screaming accusing him of harassment. He was jailed for 3 nights and was made to pay a sum of money to get himself free - since the place where it happened has an extreme "rape" law - you give a woman a look or say something that mirrors you lusting her or touch her cause you wanted to help her - could fall for sexual harassment or rape. Like the flag here in Steemit that law was made to protect and those who were supposed to be protected by that law - sometimes abuse it. After that my guy friend barely talks to women nor look at them - more so help them. No he has not become a man hater - the experience surely have brought him trauma he swore to never meddle no matter what ... who ever is involved. I suppose we can't really generalize and sometimes it's better to let it be.. sometimes.