Forgive me if I ramble, butI feel passionate about this topic and this book.
In regards to my above comment... the absence of Batman (and the other DC heroes) turned the bright and shiny DC universe in the Dark Knight dystopia future with looser and darker pubic morals, worse than some of Marvel's dark futures.
In this dark DC future there were no ideal heroes around to motivate and inspire people to rise above their own selfish needs. Even with Superman around (although working in a clandestine fashion). The heroes bowed out, and the standards of quality of life and moral code represented better by the Flash, the Green Lantern and Diana went down the toilet.
Further, and to quote TDK Joker, the world and gotham needed "a better class of criminal". Can you imagine the Mutant gang achieving the level of power and fear in the city with the Joker, Killer Croc or the Penguin still running the upper echelons of crime in the city? Where are the mob bosses? Sure they were very very bad men who did very very bad things, but they had standards. I will open this up for debate by saying that TDKR Two-Face doesn't count. Harvey Dent has lost his fight with his dark side, and is self-destructive and nihilistic in his despair. The attempts to clean him up were only cosmetic, and he is rotten to the core, like society.
What we get teens that are street thugs, kids getting their kicks off of theft, rape and murder. Almost all of them that we see in the book are, except for the new Robin. Basically, teens that grew up without role models on either side. And as hard as I have to admit saying it, those teens are us - the hardened readers. Before the big climax, THE FIGHT, there was a small unspoken moments that I have come to appreciate as I look back at what Batman was, what he is and what he means to us.
It was when the news reporters mentioned that the cities of the United States were in chaos in the nuclear winter, there was ONE city where people could walk safely down the streets. Where the rebelling youth of our future were guided out of the gutter and darkness by one man. The one man who can plunge into the abyss with us and haul us (as a society) back from the brink through sheer spirit and willpower alone into the light. One man who CAN make a difference, with the sheer power of his presence or absence. A man strong enough to take our place in the shadows of our hearts and darkness of our streets and take it all... because he can. Batman.
And to all the posters who have said that we (as Americans) aren't in a world darker now (and closer to the dystopia of the DKNR world), I painfully have two things to counter-argue to you. 1) School shootings 2) the hype over the 'octo-mom'.