Yes, pushing and tapping has always happened. What hasn't always happened is the pushing of the whole grid with the intention of causing as many of those in front to spin as possible.
Most sane people will agree that the starts have got much worse in the last 10 or so years and the loading - as both an offensive and defensive measure - is one of the primary causes of this. I've had the fortune of racing before the widespread introduction of clutches and the misfortune of racing after. In all the racing I did, I was never pushed from the last corner to the first corner wedged into the guy in front. You would get some tapping and jostling for position under braking for the first corner but rarely anything done with the intention of making you spin. The starts were generally only messy if someone did spin and you had nowhere to go.
After the introduction of clutches (when Rotax first appeared), the starts slowly degenerated into crash fests; and what's really disappointing is that classes that never had problems before despite having clutches (such as Cadets) saw a drop in driving standards also.
So, whilst we all would agree that a tougher stance needs to be taken by officials, it has to be accepted that, currently, standing starts appear to have improved the chances of making it through the first corner unscathed.
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