YCTTSFM

Airline policy has changed for everyone.

There was no name verification. Remember the Dan Cooper incident? Despite how frequent hijackings were at the time, the government did not impose ID checks. It took the airlines another 15 years to realize ID checks are a revenue enhancer.

Until the late '80s major newspapers had classified ad sections for people to sell/buy tickets they could not use—if asked, you simply affirmed you were the person named on the ticket.

Paying cash was routine. (Recently I tried to upgrade with cash, had to use a cc because the ticket counter no longer has cash-handling ability!)

Awareness of potential abuse to minors is greater. Last month I saw FAs reseat a 15-y-o female away from a window seat next to a male pax making mildly salacious comments—a very different experience to my 16-y-o cotraveler being groped throughout a 12-hr translatlantic flight (about 1975) yet the FAs only suggested she "ask him to stop," would not even speak to the offending pax let alone reseat either of them!

My point is that not only air travel, but law/attitudes towards minors have drastically changed over the years, and recently at a faster pace. Assuming the OP's experiences will resemble yours of past decades may be reassuring, but misleading.