I just worked at one of the AA Divisional meets in Montana for the last couple days, and noticed how common drifting out into lane two is even at HS level. What really caught my attention was that some kids now even do this to team-mates, and quite a few make contact intentionally to defend a lead that they would clearly lose if it remained a legitimate race to the line.
My reaction is "what's the point?" You could also win by just knocking them down on lap one, or tripping them on purpose, but that is not why we race. I am happy to see that the huge majority of kids still run an honest race to see who can get to the line first, but the frequency of 'impede the passing runner as much as you can get away with' tactics is clearly increasing, and some coaches promote it as 'just being smart'.