Bob, While I didn't specifically direct the question to you, I wanted to. But, I figured I would just put it out there, allowing anyone to respond. I'm glad you did.
It's interesting to hear they were contemporaries. It makes me wonder if there wasn't a sea change in the mindset? Which begs the question, was this sea change a result of an America influence? I say that, Knowing how frustrated CBM became, when Chicagoans started changing some of the fundamental principles, learnt from his time with Old Tom.
My thoughts are that once the R&A, USGA put a rule in place restricting equipment, they opened the door to the recent criticisms of doing nothing to combat the I&B changes. This Masters illustrated to me, how the way layer, is now the status quo. A result of confidence gained from rarely miss hitting the ball, with any swing speed.
Addiction is defined as continued action in the face of adverse circumstance. Clearly there's been adverse circumstance affecting owner operators worldwide. The R&A is likely insulated from this perception because they have raised their fees and become so much richer, they don't see the problem.