Sloppy - as a partial answer to your question, during World War Two at least 10,000,000 UK, Commonwealth and Empire soldiers, sailors and airmen served at some stage over the (almost ) six years of the war. A total of 182 VCs were awarded for the years 1939-45. That makes an average of 30 per year, or very approximately 1 per 330,000 men mobilised per year. Taking into account the far smaller numbers of troops currently in Afghanistan, I dont think that there is any question of the VC being awarded more sparingly than previously.
Incidentally, in the period 1946-69 only 9 awards were made, a period which included the Korean War and conflicts in Palestine, Cyprus, Malaya, Suez, Aden, Kenya and Borneo.