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I'm not sure that it's a recent trend or that it's a form of self-reference. As Prof. Foster suggests, it's a generic, and as Prof. Rowe writes, it depersonalizes. The Oxford English Dictionary Online cites uses of generic "you" from as far back as the 16th c. I suspect it's found more in informal speech, and it's certainly common in giving instructions, as in, "You take the line in your left hand and pull out about three feet of it." Certainly the speaker is speaking to someone, but the "you" has a sense of "anyone who wants to do this." It's something of an informal substitute for "one," and The Oxford English Grammar gives the example, "...one feels that if you create too many..."
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