But were all those times run in one race? This is a simple listing of PRs from the Era, which isn't necessarily indicative that everyone was running that fast all of the time. I think you're misjudging this by believing that everyone ran fast back then because of how dominant El Guerrouj was and the fact that he ran fast times EVERY race, thus pulling people along to fast times. What I was to know is how many had races outside of the ones that El G ran had sub 3:30 times? El Guerrouj was an outlier in the sense that he could do it every race, whereas most people couldn't/still cant.
I don't think the talent is really any different so much (the drug testing has, though), it's just the game has changed and people are running more tactical races instead of going balls to the wall every time. If you don't believe me, remember the 2015 Monaco 1500? Six guys went under 3:30! (Compared to the 10 listed above, in which Ramzi should be removed since he was actually caught doping, thus really only being 9 "legit" times).
1 KIPROP, Asbel 3:26.69 WL,MR
2 ALG MAKHLOUFI, Taoufik 3:28.75 PB
3 MAR IGUIDER, Abdelaati 3:28.79 PB
4 GBR FARAH, Mo 3:28.93
5 NZL WILLIS, Nick 3:29.66 AR
6 KEN MANANGOI, Elijah 3:29.67 PB
If you guys can list the races in El G's era that had that many people go sub 3:30, I'm genuinely interested in seeing them, especially if El Guerrouj wasn't in them. But in conclusion, I don't think the talent is really any different - it's just that we don't see many super fast times anymore, which I attributed to the absence of Hicham El Guerrouj.