Not long before I left the service, I flew to Gutersloh for the Christmas duty-free booze run (do those still exist?). The circuit was hell with aircraft in every direction.
A good few years later, I was tasked to do a trooping flight from Brize to the same German airfield in a good old Boeing 737. I warned my first officer that he would have to keep a very good lookout when we arrived there as it was likely to be bedlam!
On our arrival, there were no aircraft to be seen and the only sign of activity was some poor soul walking out to his Harrier and applying electric power to it and sadly walking back to his squadron.
This, I believe, is what's changed, little flying compared to the old days.