There were absolutely jerks back in the day too.
Let’s take off the rose colored goggles a little bit here
Reading is fundamental
Most people are totally decent people nowadays as well.
In my experience (and apparently many others) the amount of decent people in pugs is lower now. YMMV of course.
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Absolutely. Even as recent as Legion, I would pug keys, normal, and heroic raids. Pugging just sucks now.
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Let me tell you my tale of woe - and how I learned to be the change I want to see :
My first Character in Vanilla was a Rogue. I love playing a Rogue. My Rogue was my main throughout Vanilla and most of BC - when pugging was abysmal, and server only.
Those were rough times.
By the end of WotLK, I realized if I am going to pug, and I want faster groups, I need to pick a more versatile class. So by the end of WotLK, I rerolled a Druid, and he has been my Main.
Tank, Healer, and RDPS. Depending on my mood. Pretty much instant invites. People will take a lower geared healer before a lower geared DPS, just because there are more options.
That is also one reason I play a Lock. I pretty much scroll through the group finder and see many groups that say stuff like:
“Will Carry Any Warlock for summonz!”
“Be good - or be a Warlock!” = meaning they just want a portable closet/cookie machine.
Now, I still love my Rogue. I probably have the most fun playing him. But mediocre Rogues are a dime a dozen. And melee DPS is crowded. If I try to pug on my Rogue, I might spend all night trying to find a group.
I really wish Blizzard would give Rogues a Tank Spec. To give them more options for group content.
True.
They also got blacklisted by the community, where they had 2 choices, roll another toon or server swap and hope no one knows the better.
Talk about rose colored glasses though 
I couldnt possibly disagree with this more.
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An evasion tank that didn’t take much damage and could bring shroud? New meta? I might actually get my bank rogue to max for this!
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People are not actually keeping accurate data and they are attributing their nostalgic feelings and justifying them by “remembering” things in such a way that aligns.
Objectively, the game was MUCH easier to play and both the skill floor and ceiling was much smaller and more of your success hinged on having enough gear to get through content with very little actual skill coming into the mix so of course most people who actually got in to do content got through it. Content was very much a domino effect where once you got through it the first time, every other subsequent time and upgrade you got made it just that much easier and easier.
Contrast to today where content is objectively much harder both in terms of the laundry list of mechanics that literally make dungeon bosses harder than old school raid bosses multipled by every spec having excessively complicated priority systems that also often require twitch reflexes. On top of that, even the world around you scales in some fashion making even upgrades not feel as impactful in your overall power.
The point being is it is WAY harder to be successful and that pressure can make someone aggressive or defensive when they otherwise would not be. More eyes are on you and your eyes on others looking for these cracks and flaws in their performance and character.
People weren’t nicer back then…it’s just that the game was so easy and simple that their negative sides never got brought to the light. Most people aren’t toxic for the sake of being toxic but are toxic rather in response to feeling like they are being judged or have been wronged in some way (or even if they feel overly safe in being their true self since the risk of repercussion is low).
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Where’s the data on that?
But seriously, I don’t see anyone arguing that quantitatively, things are better or worse, people are sharing opinions. Regardless of why people may have been nicer in the past, the general consensus seems to be that they were. Could we all be wrong? Sure. But going just off my own experience, pugs are bad enough now that I pretty much stopped.