Our entire civilization has always rested on a tacit "it's nice to have civilization, so we play by the rules" by everybody involved. Voluntary restraint is what keeps us from being animals, not nature or laws.
As Hobbes wrote so eloquently, we keep that compact because the alternative is "continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"
We're currently exploring how many of those rules are really necessary, and, as a society, have decided to mostly shrug off that exploration.
That is the part that's changed. A willingness to ignore the rules by some, and a collective shrug by most.
As Hobbes wrote so eloquently, we keep that compact because the alternative is "continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"
We're currently exploring how many of those rules are really necessary, and, as a society, have decided to mostly shrug off that exploration.
That is the part that's changed. A willingness to ignore the rules by some, and a collective shrug by most.