I think you're wrong that "political correctness" is so bad nowadays. There have always been things that people have believed in their hearts but were not socially acceptable to broadcast generally.
The only difference lately is that there's pressure being put on traditionally privileged and powerful groups to stop being such assholes to everybody else.
In the past, the only people not able to say what they truly thought were the oppressed. Now there is social pressure being applied to the priveleged and of course the privilaged push back against this pressure.