Maybe 30 years there werent so many restrictions,less traffic...most airports where a continious idle descent is possible are those which airspace isnt overcrowded...
There were still plenty of restrictions then - descents these days more continuous from an atc perspective due one way routings and radar cover - little has changed when it comes to execution of a cda from that point of view
Handflown with idle thrust aint a real challenge,or was it 30 years ago?
Agree but we didn't have fmcs and magenta lines - there seems to be an obsession with putting every macro change into the fmc instead of thinking about what you're doing!