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Yes. All contact on the field is left up to umpire judgement. Although softball/baseball is not a contact sport contact will occur.
The slide which you refer to could have been malicious contact, or merely a late attempt by the runner. This is a HTBT (had to be there) play. In my experience, in softball, few slides are initiated to dislodge the ball, or upend the fielder. In baseball, at HS and above level, it is more prominent, yet still uncommon.
The rules basically state that a runner must attempt to avoid a collision (most leagues, not MLB). Sliding is one way a collision is avoided. Using that logic, a slide can not be a collision. It can however still be illegal if judged by the umpire to be malicious in nature. This type of slide can also lead to an ejection.
The art of sliding is probably not taught as much as it should be in the younger age groups, which may lead to some of the "wrecks" that occur. Assuming the fielder is waiting to make the tag, a runner sliding around and reaching back with a hand, foot, knee or any other part has a much better chance to be called safe than one who does a straight in slide. I called 9 games in a tourney this saturday, 4 18U teams. One girl would slide completly past the base, and reach back to touch it. She was not tagged out once the whole day, I called all 5 of her games. Others would slide straight in and be tagged out 90% of the time.
I always take the age group of the kids into consideration also. The younger groups I feel are less likely to do things out of retaliation than the older ones. As they age this seems to change somewhat. I hope they are not learning that from us adults, but.....
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