Do you remember turning on the news in the 80s? What you would get is a sort of neutral, fact based rundown of the daily happenings.
I agree that people probably haven't changed much over the years. As you say, they now have more exposure to each other because of social media and such. I do think though, that some things have definitely changed.
Because of the massive amount of innuendo and exaggeration that has been introduced in news for the purpose of entertainment, the way that we consume it has also evolved. It has gotten to the point that it would be nearly impossible to go back to the old way even if we wanted to.
Imagine that today a new network started. This network is dedicated to just the facts. Within a day, this news network would be labeled as either liberal or conservative depending on that days' reporting. I suppose they could get past this by making sure that if Trump said something stupid and they reported on it, they'd have to find something equally stupid that some liberal said that day. But at some point it isn't news anymore it's just gossip.
People don't care about the facts anymore. They only want to hear what supports their current belief system.
I think this is why I've gotten really into Vipassana meditation over the last few years. It is a process of eliminating incorrect perceptions and most importantly, wrong beliefs by looking deeply at reality and seeing it for what it really is - not what you want it to be. Which makes logical sense, but takes a lot of effort to actually achieve! I guess that's why everyone's not a buddha by now.