I think the nature of our leaders has changed. My experience of the 80s was that, in comparison to today, there was a far higher proportion of senior officers who were little more than outright bullies. It was accepted as virtually the norm.
In the same way that the cultural mores allowed the likes of Saville to get away with what they did in the 70s and 80s, the power of the military heirarchy was so strong that questioning of those above was simply not permitted.