Arguably LLMs take us further away from that than we've ever been. All they do is automate copying and pasting in shit from StackOverflow.
We were closer to everyone being able to learn how to program computers in the mid-80s when everyone had one and they started up with a BASIC prompt.
Literally everyone had a ZX Spectrum, or Commodore 64, or a BBC Micro if their parents were rich and thought that having the same as they had at school was a good idea.
They were cheap and ubiquitous, unless I suppose you were in one of "Iron Curtain" countries.
I suppose it's a bit like television, it would have been more popular where it was invented.
Did you live in the UK in the 1980s?
Yes.
> One specific model of ZX Spectrum
I do not believe this to be the case, that number appears to include the 128K and the Amstrad variants also.