i think furry has always had nsfw elements to it, just that it's gotten more accessible with the way the internet's grown - but since that might not be appropriate topic discussion for this forum, i wanna focus on some other aspects:

i think it's changed so much because - well, media has changed, too! the style of tooniness has changed because cartoons have changed in their general style, i think. which means it attracts new or different people, who in turn draw new and different artwork, and overall the crowd itself has, at least to my perspective, started to skew younger than it used to.

like, back in 2008 when i first discovered furry (or rather, "oh, that has a name?!"), i think that a majority of the furry media i consumed was oldfur, but what i wasn't aware of at the time is that i was simultaneously participating in new microcosms of furry like chibifur. and i think that's wonderful, you know, how it's sort of... not fragmented, but diversified over the years with the introduction of things like overseas media and all.

in terms of community itself, i think the general timeline goes something like this:

oldfurry is "founded" or properly organized
the ones who create media may have gone on to make formative furry media for children (disney robin hood, once upon a forest, stuff like that)
children have some sort of formative experience with the media that changes their perspective and creates the basis of potential furry energy
children grow up and make more furry media

and it is like a cycle from there, i think, the way it snowballs like that, for a lot of reasons, but especially just "furries are everywhere and will always make art with furries", both in drawing and other media types. and it's really so awesome, i think!

i do sort of lament what felt like a more unified idea of furry, but at the same time, i think it's great that there's such a bounty of furry subtypes, i think. i almost want to say it mirrors the way the LGBT community has refined itself over the years - after all, a high percentage of furries are also LGBT! - and how there are new labels and such there, too.

so, i dunno, i definitely think it's changed in a lot of ways, and i think i'm optimistic that it's a good change for the community (aside from the nsfw thing, which, again, not something we probably want to discuss at length, LOL)

I feel like a lot of it is just the areas you are in. There has always been NSFW topics. Sexuality has been a big focus of the fandom. I just have not been in those spaces all of the time, I used to just watch animation memes, which does not really have as much focus on that stuff.

My big complaint is that it's mostly on Twitter now. XD I dislike Twitter...it really fosters a lot of fights and fuels drama. I would rather see it exist in smallscale meets again, which it does, to a degree, but I'm not sure where they are nor if I would want to go to such meets..

there's more anthro-anthro nsfw as opposed to anthro-feral or feral-feral and most furry artists i've seen go more towards having a level of suggestiveness to them even when not drawing explicit nsfw.
"the furry community" or "the furry fandom" became more of a mainstream thing, but that also means less people actually identify as being a furry even when they explicitly like furry material, like furry characters or even when they have a fursona - but this also means that more people are into the aspects of being a furry rather than the label itself. which is pretty cool i think, it lessens the strand on trying out and figuring out new things that you might like based on prejudice, but some part of me also misses that type of "obscurity" of being part of a specific type of community most people either haven't heard of or don't know much about.

but no matter what, i think most changes are actually good and the reason to miss them is simply because of reminiscing about the past, and not because the changes are bad. furries becoming more mainstream and inviting in more people is obviously one of the best things that could've ever happened.