To enable the old behaviour you need to edit a browser flag. I don't know of any of the flags that disable Google 'engagement' features which have been kept aro

To enable the old behaviour you need to edit a browser flag. I don't know of any of the flags that disable Google 'engagement' features which have been kept around over the long term. The flags I've had to set in the past have all been removed after a few months. Two recent examples off the top of my head are the recommended stories on the new tab page and the ability to disable images appearing in the omnibox.