It's often a convenient shorthand for saying you think a person or policy is racist, sexist, homophobic, islamophobic etc without actually saying it. It's like

It's often a convenient shorthand for saying you think a person or policy is racist, sexist, homophobic, islamophobic etc without actually saying it. It's like "alleged" only there's always an "alleged <something>", while "problematic" is only ever used alone. IMHO it's overused, because of its distinct lack of clarity. It's especially incorrect when the reporter is injecting it themselves, as opposed to reporting what some other person said.