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In my experience, the opposite is true. Back in the day--say, the 1970's--religion rarely entered into the political discussion, and very few people wore their beliefs on their sleeve like they do today. Outside of certain areas like maybe the Deep South or traditional bible belt areas, you could go weeks without hearing a single word about Jesus, God or being saved. Likewise, you could walk the streets of any big city in America for weeks and not hear a word from the atheists criticizing religions.
Today, the opposite is true. Almost no day goes by where someone doesn't feel the need to proselytize. I certainly feel I am being bombarded with religious speech and imagery: constantly being asked if I've been saved, seeing huge billboards reminding us that we need to be saved, crosses on hilltops, huge statues of Jesus alongside our highways, etc. So, perhaps what some call the "War on Christmas" is nothing more than atheists simply holding a line which they believe has been crossed by Evangelicals.
Well, I don't know what 70's timeline you were in, but in my 70's timeline "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Godspell" came out, Norman Greenbaum recorded Spirit In The Sky", and the crew of Apollo 8 read Genesis 1 while circling the moon. There was also a whole new hippie type movement called "Jesus Freaks".