Yeah it's been a drastic change over the years, not just the development of the sport e.g equipment, rules etc. But the attitude, players nowadays seem to be in for the money, big money. I agree that caps should be put in place for football player salaries, but it's not the only sport that is going ridiculous with spending, NBA and NFL plus a lot others are.
Yep Football was a tough game say 10 to 20 years ago, players could take a hit and get back up and show the desire to win by playing even harder after taking hits. Nowadays they take a hit, get a stretcher, slow the game and make a massive deal of the tiniest issues.
I personally think a lot of the passion has been lost from the game, and that was what made it 'beautiful'. If the players were passionate so were the fans, the whole atmosphere was amazing. Now you get players chasing money and glory, trading to bigger and better clubs just for that 15 minutes of fame. I would much rather see players bolstering flailing clubs and overcoming the big dogs in crucial matches. It would make it much more interesting and people would probably truly enjoy it more.