Unfortunately I was not there, but I get the feeling that meets with the type of scene described and all the excitement of records were more common then. In "The Greatest" an early biography of Geb, there are nights like this described. One time he sat in the stands and watched 2 of his own records fall. Not every one was magic, with 'love in the air' or whatever, but many were. I'm not positive what the differences are now, but I have some theories.
The Golden League may have been the beginning of the end, but the Diamond League nailed the coffin shut. I can understand why some big meets recently got out of the DL business recently. Back then, the events competed with each other. There was no plan like we saw with DL in recent years in which no event is held for both genders on the same night.
So meet A will have W100, W400, M200, M high hurdles for example. Meet B will reverse M &W. For distance it's even worse. M steeple and W 5000 or W steeple and M 5000 are your 2 choices. No 10km as that is not a DL event.
"4 hour Olympics" and "3 hour Olympics " became "2 hour Olympics". Without central planning, and with each meet truly competing with each other, there were more races on each stadium's calendar, and many more on Europe's overall calendar. Hengelo and Rieti held significant meets over the years. The Geb book mentions them as has Gault and any number of writers. However, if it ain't Diamond League, Bolt and Farah were not there. Oh, did I mention the 25 lapper ceased to exist? There were even times when someone would put on a 2000. If someone of Komen/ElG caliber asked, it could happen.
OK, so guys like Coe aren't completely to blame. Was EPO the biggest reason records came down all the time then but not now? Look at what a big deal the recent 5k record was. That what it seems when existing marks are very very close to ultimate human limits. And most track fans seem to think drugs are what got the records to that point. Breaking one now is incredibly rare, as JG points out. I don't strongly disagree with this but I personally believe EPO and everything else is still commonly used. It's just that there will likely at some point be unbreakable records that anyone with human DNA can't surpass and the times from the turn of the century were getting close to that. Maybe not; we'll see....
I think another factor can be called the 'Bowerman Effect'. Jerry alone is not entirely responsible for this, but his squad typifies the phenomenon. If we all agree that Olympics and World Championships are the most important meets, why run anything else? Look at Ashton Eaton. His prime lasted an Olympic cycle. 2 OGs, 2 WCs. How many decathlons did he complete during that span? Some may think 4, a qualifier at USATF and the main event each of those. But what about the off year in the middle? If he did 1 then that would be 5. But didn't he need a mark just to qualify for USATF? Actually he did as few as he could and still get those 4 Golds. Trials and OG twice, that's 4. USATF and WC the first of those. That's 6. The second he had the defending champ pass so he didn't need to do USATF. 7 total.
Of course, decathlon is a grueling event and I don't know how many I'd have done. Perhaps a couple more, some of us may be tempted to say, but if you don't 'have to' then many don't. Jerry's Kids are perfect examples of this.
I mentioned Geb and a book entirely about his track career, but read whatever you can about Tergat or Radcliffe or go American and read Deena Kastor's book or go way back and read one of Shorter's autobiographies. Or Bill Rodgers or whoever else you may find something written by or about. You will find that the Americans tended to run National Championships whether or not they were a selection event for an International Championship. Pre-WC, did they all just show up to AAU or TAC (or whatever the US Federation was called in a particular era) in Olympic years only? It seems to me that if they were healthy, they were there. These days, many ignore it in the off year in the middle of an Olympic cycle.
Forget USATF XC. Even as recently as Adam Goucher's career he'd show up to that. So did Ryan Hall. Look at it now.
While the article refers to European pro meets as opposed to National events, the apathy toward racing has led to exactly the same lack of attendance. People used to race either for money or for the thrill of racing - or both. When each meet was a standalone event that didn't accrue points or qualify for anything else, stars still ran. They all did. Very cool!