"... it was always this way, it just did not seem so bad" is a very colonialist argument.
For those immersed in the colonialist mindset, there is no "human" culture or time, outside of colonialism / neoliberalism.
To them history and humanity seems to always have been this way.
And so they can live without outrage and hatred for this so called culture. They might even be intent on saving it.
The "culture" so set on finally totally destroying the othered cultures that those blinded by it no longer imagine or remember humanity as something other than the dog eat dog days.