I found an obscure political joke in the scan of a 1971 IBM logic block manual

They also have 'Concerns about the terminology' as the next section.

My "IBM is evil" bias leads me to guess they wanted to make their own standard that people started using. Then charge ridiculous license fees.

that's an interesting question. cars/motorcycles/fast things were a huge box-office theme in the 90s and 2000s, with many franchises featuring car thieves, enthusiasts, and racers -- but the same trend was around in the 70s.

If one generalizes social direction by using box office themes as an indicator, like plenty of people (probably unwisely) do, it's a tough question.

Sports car sales, a decent indicator of automotive interest due to their singular purpose nature, were higher in the 90s and 2000s than the 70s.

Just as a singular example, take the Corvette[0]. A practically useless car for anything but enthusiasts, sports driving, and status. It sold 21 thousand units in 71, and 53 thousand units in 84. If that's any indicator, the peak must've been past 71, at least, albeit that's a fairly weak indicator given the gas crisis a few years later that spurred most folks away from anything with a big engine.

Cars are still a huge status symbol for the rich, famous, and successful. Millenial-aged rappers are still buying Lamborghinis.

To be clear : I think you're dead-on correct that millenials are driving less, but personally I think that means more about millenials lack of financial mobility more than it does the failure of the automobile to allure current generations.

[0]: https://www.corvsport.com/corvette-sales-volume-year/

An aside but I’ve always found that turn of phrase bemusing. The right word is “can’t”, nobody says “I don’t swim” or “I don’t wire a plug”. It’s like people realise that it’s something they ought to be able to do and are deficient in it.