People as a species and aspects of life have always been competitive, generally speaking (of course, some people are VERY extremely competitive whereas others are barely at all...or at least, they don't care enough to engage) but I do personally believe that we've become more aggressively and overtly competitive these days vs decades or centuries ago, particularly in certain superficial and materialistic areas. As far as jobs/employment, I think that's also become more competitive in a different way - for example, nowadays it seems often the person with the highest degree automatically 'wins', vs years ago while a degree was valued people still seemed to get credit for on the basis of hands-on experience, not just that piece of paper. And then as I mentioned, looks these days seem to be overvalued and people are soooo into being 'the most sexy' or the best-looking, etc. And looks have always been a competition of sorts but now it's gotten out of hand, imo.
Of course, I'm one of the least competitive people on the planet so maybe I don't really know what I'm blathering on about. :-/