1) This wasn't really forgotten by the public. There was a law passed by Congress meant to address this, which if anyone has worked in American corporate governance is well aware of. The article mentions the FCPA.
2) The much more interesting question about Watergate is what were the Plumbers looking for? Why did they conduct their break ins? This was not understood at the time.
We now know about Nixon's successful attempt to torpedo the Vietnam peace talks in '68. Something Mark Felt didn't even know. We also now know that LBJ knew about it as well right before the elections in '68. LBJ didn't make it public, but instead kept a file on it that later came to be held in his presidential library. Nixon and the plumbers were likely looking for this file. They never found it and it wasn't until a researcher in the mid-90's discovered it in LBJ's presidential library. This information, had it been made public, would have destroyed Nixon.