Things that changed since my childhood :
We used to open the map and find a VERY large strip of land called U.S.S.R. in the north. Marked always in red. That country no longer exists in recent maps.
Most of the novels, fictions, movies were based on WW2 events. Most other villains were from USSR. Now a days the villains are mostly aliens from outer space. Catastrophic events have changed from then avoidance of a nuclear war to now asteroid fall.
TV wasn't that violent. The long run of A-Team didn't show anyone killed, only hurt or humiliated. Now it's all about killing as much people on screen as time allows.
These were the time in 70s and 80s. And things changed after the 90s.
So what changed?
Maybe people were focused too much to be the good guy acknowledging human rights and everything, against the communist who didn't really care about these things. And as communism fell, that requirement became moot, and now almost non existent.