I'll go ahead and say no. First, there are too many routings out there to generalize about. Yes, there are a few turds in the punch bowl, but probably just as many in any era on a percentage basis. We will never know, because most of the older bad routings are no longer in existence.
All generations merely deal with the task in front of them the best they can. As TD notes, if greens and tees aren't as close, it is for safety, or following the developers mandate to find more lots. I remember marveling at the narrow roads in Boston when I visited as a kid. Just like the narrow two lane road has gone the way of the dodo bird, so have tightly spaced holes. Experience showed that more room was beneficial.
There are many old construction photos showing blasting of rock. We can't be sure the reason behind these, but it was available to them, at least on higher budget projects. As I noted on another thread, most of my routings since 1977 followed the land and required very little earthmoving for fair and visible holes. Most decisions to move dirt were voluntary, as in the Quirk thread, but the routing usually didn't require it to be moved to meet basic design objectives.
In other words, the best and even mid level architects in any generation had a skill for routing. The worst never do.