To be honest, there isn't much of a difference between now and then. Sure, there have been changes made, but the majority of them were to accommodate our growing playerbase, such as more moderators being hired to help manage the amount of rule breakers.
The main thing here is that we romanticize the past, which makes it seem better. Looking back on the old 2013ish MCSG, I remember being good and having some of the best times of my life. Now when I actually think about what it was like, I was awful. I had a 50/700 ratio, I raged when teams killed me, and all the stuff I did when I used to play this summer.
The main separator from now and then is the playstyle. It seems everyone is tryhards who and plays for stats, rather than for fun.