It's not that politics didn't exist back then, but like everything else, people have forgotten what it was like before the internet and smartphones. You were really only exposed to what you went looking for back then. It wasn't piped directly into your home and in your face 24/7. The news was on a couple times a day for an hour or in a newspaper you had to go out of your way to read, it wasn't on 24/7 in every bar, restaurant, waiting room, etc. Anything niche was coming from a magazine or newsletter you had to go out of your way to get. We're inundated with information constantly and that has never been the case prior to the last 20 years or so and especially the last 10.