@Gargron A big change I don’t see other replies mentioning — LED lighting. Sets had to be more intentional with lighting because every extra light would make the set like 10° hotter.
So sets had fewer lights, making the bright areas brighter and dark areas darker in a more realistic way, and the actors sweating in the hot set made everything feel more tangible.
Now that you can throw big LED light panels around literally every corner and not worry about power or heat, everything looks perfect and flat.
Maybe another contributing factor in post-production is the LOG digital format. Nothing is ever lost. Shadows and highlights can always be crushed down. No film grain.
