I doubt it. With the internet, cell phones etc news stories like this are just being reported more widely and people have greater access to what used to be confined to local news.
You’re ignoring the absence of anecdotes.
A nationwide problem which has gone on for decades should have plenty of anecdotes. “This happened to us / a neighbor/ a friend/ a relative X years ago”....
Yet if this problem was truly as great of a problem so many years ago, where are all the anecdotes? If nothing has changed, then the presence of anecdotes would reflect no change.