Tire age

But I digress........I remember when I was a kid, this wasn't a huge issue. There were people that routinely had tires that were ten plus years old and did fine. Of course, lots of factors have changed, too including car speeds with the advent of everything having an over drive transmission, so that's one thing. It could be too that since the whole world wasn't "as connected" you just didn't hear about the many tire failures as much too. I wonder though, about tire rubber composition. Has it somehow changed for the worse? I'd sure like to think it's improved, "supposedly" like everything else.
Bias ply construction and the rubber used is why IMO. The polyester belts are more forgiving than steel.

My first car was a 1970 Dart 4 door, that I bought in 2001. It had 11,000 original miles with the original tires on it. The car sat in a garage in Florida it’s whole life. My brother and I drove on those tires for a year before I could afford new ones. I was 14 lol I remember the new set of 14” tires were $118 installed out the door! Took me a year to save!