Those who were old enough mid 00s can confirm it was a different world.
I can confirm. I'll share some 2003-2006 experiences.
In 2004, I turned 21. About 2 weeks before turning 21, I broke it off with a woman who had some personality defects. I can confirm that in 2004, women were more receptive to bar approaches. There was this one place I went that had a big dance floor. In those days, you could approach a woman on the dance floor, rub your crotch into her crotch on the dance floor facing her or sometimes from behind after she's seen your face, get a makeout on the dance floor, escalate throughout the night, go back to someone's place and have sex. While this happened to me in the mid-2000s, it never once happened to me in the 2010s. I also didn't go to a lot of those types of places in the 2010s because fewer of them existed.
At bars without dance floors in 2004-06, you were more likely to get a woman's undivided attention since her cell phone then was rather basic and mostly good for phone calls. There was not much texting. There were no smartphones, therefore there were no apps. More women were in the moment.
Dating websites were fairly mainstream in 2003-06. Match.com launched in 1995 and was well established by then. Same could be said for eHarmony. OkCupid started in 2004, and PlentyofFish was around then. Women still were getting messaged a lot online, but even that got worse by 2008-2012.
In like 2004-05, it was possible to message a woman on MySpace and set up a date. If you were in college in 2004-05, you could do some early Facebook stalking and come up with something.
Because of less technology in general, people were more present when you met them in person, whether you met them at a bar, through a mutual social group, out walking/hiking, etc. I did not do as much day game in 2003-06 era as in the 2010s, so I can't really compare. Night game was a big avenue for me in the mid-2000s.
First dates were also better in the mid-2000s. Since women were pursued less (fewer were using dating websites, which weren't as bad as apps would later become), they didn't have sky high expectations for every first date. The threshold for getting a 2nd date was lower in the mid-2000s than it would be by the 2nd half of the 2010s. The same date in 2005 as compared to 2018 would have different outcomes. A reasonably good date in 2005 would get you a 2nd date in 2005. A date that was reasonably good but fell short of all the magical rainbows and unicorns would get you a ghosting or a candy asssed text message of "I had a good time but I do not see this going anywhere" by the second half of the 2010s.
The 80's rocked--literally. Not nearly as many soy boys and hyper-sensitive girly "men" that are commonplace now.
No dating apps meant if you wanted a date you had to physically approach a girl and ask her out, I doubt 5% of men today under 40 could pull it off having become so over-reliant on technology and lacking social skills and balls. Not trying to be mean, but I've lived and dated in both eras and it's the truth.
Honestly not sure if it was "easier" to date back then as you had less to choose from (no apps) and the women you cold or even warm approached may be in LTRs or even married. You never knew until you tried.
I've sometimes been surprised about men and approaching. I've approached women at fitness classes on and off for nearly a decade and seen very few men do that. I've rarely observed other men doing grocery store approaches like I've done over the years. I'm 37, so I'm in that under 40 group. Approaching strangers in public is somewhat of a fading art in the Millennial (1982-1996) generation. I don't see it rebounding much, if at all, with Gen Z (1997-early 2010s). The oldest Gen Z's are now eligible to go to bars and are now dating as adults.
