Skyrim isn't very emergent though - morrowind is moreso, but for emergent gameplay you want to look at dwarf fortress, SS13 or many roguelikes. If anything, Bethesda have been simplifying their games through the years.
It definitely felt magical when it was new, but I think that's just a feeling. Skyrim has Radiant AI and things like NPCs taking over establishments when the owner dies. A number of dynamic behaviors which help things feel a bit more alive.
I can't remember Morrowind having any kind of dynamic behavior or emergent gameplay. Unless you count being able to lock yourself out of quests by killing important characters (including as part of other quest lines!) which is something I do miss.
As I understand it, Radiant AI is a framework for fixed and relatively simple finite state machines, with states like "use the anvil at the blacksmith's shop during working hours" or "drink in the tavern at 9 PM." Don't get me wrong, it's leaps and bounds beyond the NPC AI found in earlier games, but it's far from the emergent craziness you'll see in a sandbox game like Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress. Dynamic behaviors like the one you mentioned are still all essentially scripted interactions. Dialogue, the core interaction between the player and most NPCs, is still 100% scripted conversation trees. The most interesting emergent events I remember from Skyrim (or Oblivion) were funny glitches like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvuW2Jl5ZyY
I'd also like to hear the GP commentor's reply re: emergent gameplay in Morrowind. I haven't played that game as much as the others, and don't have enough in-game experience to comment.
But when most people say emergent it is often simply dynamic systems or context sensitive scripts they mean, so I assumed that was likely what they meant.
Skyrim has a number of these: NPCs you've charmed can leave you inheritance if they die, inns and shops can change owners in similar fashion, some scripted events like towns being captured in the civil war cause officials to be killed or exiled and replaced, ...
I wanted to know if there was more of that type of dynamic world behaviour to Morrowind than I could remember.
If you're referring to magic items having both positive and negative effects and having to find workarounds then it sounds like you're talking about basic synergy rather than emergent properties.
I do agree that it's a shame they've removed spell crafting and made some things more clearly positive or negative. But I must say I don't mind how ridiculously unbalanced magic was in Morrowind.