>>81692732 (OP)The internet made applying too easy and time wasting too prevalent.
There are countless applicants spamming garbage at every employer and many job listings are themselves fake data farms and positions they have no real need to fill but keep open in case a dream candidate comes along they want to lock down.
When it was all actual humans and largely local there was much less incentive to waste people's time. You had recruiters filtering timewasting employers and employers couldn't take in a million applications and sit on them.