I wouldn't even say "before relatively recently" as it depends where you are. Up until my daughter was like 5 or so she was just fully naked or in a swim diaper at the beach and like you say nobody considered that to be "nudity".
But we're in rural Canada where we don't have the pedo paranoia that seems to have taken over America, and we just let our kids run free like we did.
Though it's growing in the cities and small towns now, not long ago in a nearby town there was a Facebook panic over a man in a white van driving slowly around town. Unsurprisingly he turned out to be a plumber looking for the right address.
Honestly it sounds like Canada (minus the transgender panic). Trump is a POS but that doesn't mean that the declining quality of education is not a real problem.
My wife teaches college and trade school and the quality of incoming students declines every year as since Covid for some reason the public schools have had very low requirements for passing a grade level. Some can't even add fractions. Most can't rearrange an equation. A large fraction panic and have anxiety attacks when taking tests, and just stare at the paper like a deer in the headlights.
My daughter is now in grade 5 and they were teaching them practically nothing and not even grading them. Just "good" "adequate" or "poor" based on how well the teacher "thinks they know the material". No discipline, no challenge. And it honestly seems true that they're teaching more cultural topics and less core math/science/English.
Thankfully she has a teacher and an engineer for parents, is a voracious reader and we've taught her math and programming at home. Pulled her out of the public system this year and she's suddenly telling us what she learned and is excited to go to school...