In academia, things were different. Science didn't really get like this until tenure became hyper-competitive. In the early days of the British tradition, science was a leisurely task by nobles. After WWII, academia was expanding rapidly, and there was a shortage of professors. Academic jobs were easy to come by.

The strong incentives to cheat is very new in academia. I've seen academia for about a quarter-century, and at least MIT went from a pretty honest place to a shark tank full of crooks.

That's not a general "the world was once better," but a very specific "academic fraud has grown out-of-control in the past 25 years."