system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
History of becoming a professor

Was it easier to become a professor a few decades ago? I just finished my PhD in physics, and I'm doing a postdoc now, and I'm starting to think about life on the tenure track. It sounds very difficult to get one of these positions and it sounds equally harder to obtain tenure. 

What was it like getting a tenured position in science say 30 years ago? How much more competitive is it now compared with the past?  

I have several anecdotal examples from family friends that it was easier to become a professor in the past but I've tried googling this myself to find more concrete sources, but I keep finding articles about what it's like to be a history professor, lol.
gpt
Peter Higgs (of Higgs boson fame) is on record as saying that he probably wouldn't have been hired for a faculty job today with his CV from 50 years ago. And with his low research output, he definitely wouldn't have been granted tenure.