Difference then and now... okay on internet (but only just - we had AOL, Compuserve etc) - the rest I'd actually say amounted to
1) Money
2) Something like integrity - there's some indefinable point in the past where people stopped being willing to resign over principle/do things because they're the right thing to do. The last one I actually recall was OC 206 during the Falklands, went on to become AOSNI or similar, and resigned, (at least this is what he told a few of us one quiet morning) because he'd figured his voice would carry some weight once he reached air rank, and had just found out it didn't - so there wasn't any point carrying on. His name escapes me (although I think he was a Dave for some reason...had an AFC from '82....)
Didn't serve under him myself, I was under a later style of management on 924 Sqn in time for the Bahamas Mama. (Being a pleb I got to enjoy the same experience over the Hebrides - no posh island havens whenever my turn for a scare came due - they div'd to Nassau, we landed at Lossie <sigh>).