Since 17w16b the body of the player does not rotate while walking backwards.
Example
This old bug https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-67774 suggests, that the player is intended to rotate.
MC-116530
Player does not rotate while walking backwards
Resolved
Duplicate
4
Thank you for your report!
However, this issue has been closed as a Duplicate of MC-114900.
It has been linked to this report. If you have additional information, please add it to that report.
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