In his meeting with Frodo in the Shire, Gildor said, "The Elves have their own labours and their own sorrows, and they are little concerned with the ways of hobbits, or of any other creatures upon earth." I suspect this holds true for all Elves, not just the Noldor or Sindar, Eldar or Silvan or whatever. I seem to recall a similar statement made by Legolas, but it's too early in the morning to go digging for it.
At this point, it seems to me that the Elves are becoming like the Ents, withdrawing to their own realms, defending it, but seldom reaching beyond it to become involved with the concerns of the rest of Middle-earth. Two of the three Elven Rings, each quite powerful, are being used, and while their powers are for preservation, they are not making any attempt to preserve Middle-earth. Nenya is preserving Galadriel's memory of the Undying Lands, in a little corner of the world, and Vilya is involved in preserving Lore, the history and past of what appears to be primarily the Elves. They fight their own fights against Sauron, as does Thranduil in Mirkwood, but with only a few exceptions, they don't really get involved in the biggest picture of the conflict. Legolas is a reflection of this situation, I think. He has lived for so long among the Elves, his reflexes are not to directly aid those of other races. As he fends for himself, he appears to expect them to do the same for themselves. And in this, I find his relationship with Gimli, as well as his concern for abducted Merry and Pippin evidence that he is slowly learning how to be a member of what one might call a "world community" rather than a member of his father's realm, only occasionally interacting with outsiders. To me, he is rather symbolic of most Elves of that era, and an example of what the Elves could have accomplished, but did not. This was no longer their time, and it took prolonged and direct interaction with mortals for him to see the good of coming to their aid. On Caradhras, he was still "stuck in his own head," so to speak. By the time the Company left Lothlorien, he had begun to learn better. He does seem a bit aloof -- and lazy -- in helping the party get down off the mountain, but it was a part of the evolution of the character, his personal growth. He begins as something of an elitist snob, full of casual disdain for "lesser creatures," and by the end, he has learned to value, cherish, and love them for what they are. Which, I think, makes the character more interesting and "real."