Sorry, I'm not entirely convinced.

Egypt, even though it was still intact by the times of Socrates, has had a number of changes and shake-ups, rises, falls, attempts to change the ancient state religion, etc.

Britain had the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the Magna Carta which amounts to a major revolution was enacted in 1215, and the Norman conquest happened in 1066. All these major events hardly occurred "a few generations ago".

I'm afraid that the idea of things largely unchanging in the past comes from our poor knowledge of history, compared to recent events.