There has become a cultural consciousness of who the character is.
The thing about this is that there has always been a "cultural consciousness" of the character ever since the 60's. This is nothing new. The 60's show made Batman a pop culture icon. The West show did this, and did this alone.
The aspects of the character that we find the most effective have stuck and survived the years of multiple incarnations. There are surely hundreds of examples of books that show Batman doing very uncharacteristic "non Batman" things.
This is true. There are aspects of the character that have stayed the same since 1939. A man who had his parents killed in front of him as a boy grows up and decides to dress as a bat to try and stop what happened to him from happening to anyone else. Theres also the batcave, the vehicles, the villains, the bat family. All these aspects have been the same since the characters inception. For all 70 years. The problem is, despite all these elements have been a part of Batman from the very beginning, people still cannot acknowledge the 40's, 50's 60's, and sometimes even the 70's of Batman.
It's all part of the process of developing a character as rich and enduring as he is.
In all honesty, I dont see where there has been much development of the Batman character. The only thing I have seen is the change in personality. My opinion is, in recent years though, the writers of the Batman comics cant seem to figure out what Batmans personality should be. How many relaunches, or "fresh starts", or whatever has been attempted in the past 5 - 10 years? Hell, its going on again right now. Everytime they seem to have a balanced Batman persona, like at the very beginning of the One Year Later, they quickly abandon it and revert him back to, what this "new" generation thinks is "cool", the *******. The unapproachable, selfish, arrogant, violent Batman. I dont call this development. I call it ruination.
For some of us, Dark Knight and Batman Begins came at a time when the history needed focusing, and pruning. In my opinion, the greatest aspects of the myth lie therein.
The history doesnt need anything other than acknowledgment. Its the present that needs focusing, and the only pruning that I see that needs done is the elimination of this current thought of Batman being this terrible human being with a death wish vendetta.
In my opinion.