In primary care I hear actually the opposite. Several PCPs tell me they need a psychiatrist in their office and often times are begging to work with me. They also often times complain of being in situations they don't know how to handle such as if the patient tells them they're suicidal.
Some other factors are changing. 1-the scale of psych being all touchy-feeling is largely declining due to several trends such as more scientific advancement, harder requirements in the sciences (e.g. average GPAs are much higher for medstudents vs several years ago) 2-The era of psych patients largely being confined to asylums ended in the 80s, and there was a generational gap. Back in the day psychiatric issues were often times a taboo to talk about among friends and family. The meds got better, more mentally sick people were out in the public instead of long-term hospitals, and it's slowly but surely thrust the issue into the public mindset. 3-People are much more aware of psych issues these days due to the media and other cultural changes such as an aging population where dementia and depression are ever growing concerns.
I've mentioned this before several times. I've seen several psychiatrists not know their medical stuff, heck even their psychiatric stuff, but this is true of all physicians. It's a pet-peeve of mine when I see a patient with a significant medical problem that is easy to catch and their PCP or other physican couldn't catch it, and unfortunately it happens often.
