I don't think the thing you are referring to ever actually existed. Just like in real life you would trust someone just because someone you trusted trusted them. This is a common strawman and does not represent some sort of weakness in the relatively straightforward certifications provided by stuff that supports OpenPGP.
Of course I would trust someone if someone I trusted trusted them - subject to some obvious limitations. That is the essence of a social network. A cryptographic representation of that network is a profoundly powerful concept. But OpenPGP/gnupg are bad tools to represent it.
I don't think the thing you are referring to ever actually existed. Just like in real life you would trust someone just because someone you trusted trusted them. This is a common strawman and does not represent some sort of weakness in the relatively straightforward certifications provided by stuff that supports OpenPGP.