Dating: When did it become weird?

[dublinky]

I'll try not to make this a rant and keep it as a serious discussion, so bear with me...
I'm in my late 20's. Luckily I'm doing well enough in the recession and I'd consider myself a respectable professional type.
If I lived in the 80's I might be called a Yuppie, in the 90's "Upwardly Mobile".
This is a brief idea of who I am.

Still with me? OK.

So, when did dating become weird?
I used to date on a regular basis. You meet a nice girl, chat to her and ask her out. Sometimes she said yes, sometimes no. This was normal. You put yourself out there and worked at finding someone.
After a while, a relationship that didn't work out and a geographical move for work I decided to give it a rest for a while and focus on my career. If love happened along the way, than yay me.
Anyway my career has recently improved and I decided to go back into the active dating scene. I'm not a shy person and I deal with people everyday so no problems there. But suddenly... I meet a nice girl, chat to her, ask her out... and get sneers, curses and called a weirdo or perv!
I'm not doing anything different or creepy. One or two of the less aggressive women I've asked out explained upon further questioning that they are only interested in meeting guys when they're out. Meaning of course, when they are drunk in a nightclub.
I now people have always meet in nightclub situations, often with drink on them but my question is when did this become the only sociably acceptable way to meet people? Why is asking someone out the mark or a weirdo these days?
I'm honestly interested in peoples responses and experiences here...