""" ...would say it was a lack of leadership on the part of the Captain.""""
At many airlines now, unless it is a direct safety issue, pilots stay out of any issues with passengers and let the ground personnel deal with them. At my airline, a few Captains got involved in passenger issues in the past and ended up being in the wrong (they misunderstood airline policy that ground personnel are familiar with, etc) and now are basicly told they are responsible for getting the airplane from A to B in a safe manner but leave any passenger issues to the ground people. Unless the issue obviously involves security or safety I personally I prefer it that way too. One less thing to deal with and when dealing with people it can get ugly quickly.