There were a lot of failures and accidents back then. But in general, designers did get more experience because there were more aircraft programs and they were

There were a lot of failures and accidents back then. But in general, designers did get more experience because there were more aircraft programs and they were way faster. So if you designed, say, landing gear, you might have done quite many during your career. It was more "agile" in that sense. Nowadays companies can not go so quickly to production. The whole business has turned into oligopolies both in the main integrators and the suppliers.