But all of these cartoonists were good at their job _because_ of WW2 propaganda cartoons. US Government practically bankrolled Disney (and other cartooning groups) to ensure we had unity throughout the War.
What changed is politics. We're no longer in a World War nor a Cold War... and propaganda techniques such as this cartoon are now frowned upon.
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This is "good propaganda" though. I think our country needs more of it these days. But it'd be a difficult political battle to get people used to propaganda again, especially because there's no communist threat anymore for us to point to.
If we were to ask the US Government to spend $50 million bucks making a similar production cartoon today on a variety of US-subjects (imagine an up-to-date version of this cartoon on the modern Stock Market), can you imagine how many people would be pissed off?
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In any case, as US Government propaganda money dried up from the post-war period (1960s), the quality of cartoons dropped down. People still agreed upon the commissioning of educational cartoons for children (ex: School House Rock), but not upon educational cartoons for adults.
> Was it Hanna-Barbera and how they commoditized animation?
Hanna Barbera needed to commoditize animation to save money. With less money flowing into the industry from the post-war period (much less propaganda being made), the quality of cartoons suffered.