I've worked in the industry for a long time and I remember regularly having conversations with women who started in the 80s and 90s back then, talking about all the changes that came with new technology and other things. Positive side to 'the halcyon days' was I do think prices have overall not kept up with inflation...I was a newbie to the industry without any financial commitments and was very popular for a period with the first place I worked, and binned a lot of money on designer rubbish, and I remember an older woman in her 40s saying "Oh you remind me of all the designer whores of the 80s...good days". Its always stuck with me. I would have pinned that down to one women's perception but I heard it very commonly, 'the business is not what it was', financially speaking. But also, house prices were a lot lower back then and the cost of living generally was too, so saving to buy a house or just save for retirement was easier.
Mind you, as I say, lots of these women started late 80s and 90s so post the AIDS crisis and people were hyper vigilant about condom use. When I started, all the brothels and agencies I worked at had a culture were even OWO was still very stigmatised. Which was understandable given the collective memory, but it could be harsh for someone if they were 'rumour milled' as doing it without. But then that febrile shit still happens only now its 'she does penetration without' if she's popular etc There was a bigger culture I remember of feeling that someone who did more services or charged less for 'extras' was undercutting and letting the side down. But thats probably brothels per se.
I started just as the transition to internet advertising was becoming the norm. At first it was positive as less dependency on brothels and agents and the capricious newspaper ads if you were indie, so was obviously a good thing, but when AW et al went on the ascendancy, that meant more search engine ranking competition for websites, so it was harder to not rely on directories. It was easier to not list the services you offered, either, and therefore there were no 'promises' but as AW (and as a corollary the punting sites) started to get more popular I noticed clients got more demanding, 'you advertised you do this so now you must', somehow forgetting sexual coercion is a more serious offence than 'false advertising', and that no means no money or no money (or at least I hope I'm right on that front). And yes you more or less have to expose yourself more so discretion and compartmentalization is so much harder. But then there are sites like these and client eye as well as the increased independence and ease with which even more vulnerable sex workers can organise meets off the street. I'm tempted to think the new technologies have been good and bad in more or less equal measure.