There was less traffic in the 80s. Quite a lot less, but because it's grown gradually we're not so aware of the difference. Though it was probably a bit worse driven, on average, back then.
In the 80s, people were saying exactly the same thing, but comparing then with the 50s. Except the bit about driving standards - I'm inclined to agree, especially with the effects of lockdown, when drivers nearly got overwhelmed by pedestrians and cyclists on some roads.
When I first lived in London I wold often cycle down to see my parents in Southend after work, cycling back the next morning, using the A127 and A12. The volume and speed/aggression of traffic on them both now renders them unrideable and the most direct alternative, the A13, is also now, in effect, a motorway.
I started work in north Hertfordshire in 1981. On a number of occasions, I rode to and from my parents home in east Cheshire. It was a nice run - to Bedford, then up the A6 to Derby and through Ashbourne to Leek. I did it again a few years later, and they'd plonked stretches of unpleasant dual carriageway on what had been one of the more winding, pleasant arterial roads. They'd also messed up on central Leicester. They'd pedestrianised the old A6 and put in an inner ring road that was very unattractive to cyclists. There were cycle routes signposted "city centre", but they'd made the elementary, schoolboy mistake of forgetting that what goes in must come out, so there was absolutely no help whatsoever on how to get back out of the city centre to anywhere else, such as Loughborough or Market Harborough, and I just got lost in both directions. Signs to Wigston or Birstall would have been some help to locals, though not to me, but they didn't even have those. I also had to walk part of a long-distance ride, which didn't impress me at all, because they'd forgotten to provide for cyclists who wanted to go somewhere across town, instead of just stopping at the central shops.
They'd also plonked the A50 on top of another stretch of A6. There's a cycle path, but it was very confusing and I had to get a local to help. I was able to point out the concrete base where the construction work had flattened the Little Chef that I'd used as a regular refuelling stop