This has to do with government regulation. The government decided that driver and front seat passengers needed to have their feet directly in front of them in the event of a side crash. Therefore car manufacturers had to build in a console to prevent people from moving their feet. The smaller the car the more confined the foot well. When I had to wear a medical boot on my foot I couldn’t drive either my Marauder or my Jetta. I had to use an old truck. This and other regulations have made the car smaller and more uncomfortable. That is why people are opting for trucks and SUV’s.
Consoles go back to at least the sixties, before government got so much into style dictation, becoming popular in Europe before coming here. I also fail to see what difference it makes where your feet are when you’re strapped down in a side collision.
Bench seats were still available from Chevrolet as late as 2014 but customer preference and safety (air bags can’t help the guy in the middle) have pretty much replaced them.
https://jalopnik.com/why-front-bench-seats-went-away-1776706852
Smaller cars, generally speaking, haven’t gotten bigger in the last 20 years. The 2018 Civic has more HP and space than the 1998 Accord did.
Sorry - HAVE gotten bigger. Not haven’t.