[...] Will we (Atlas, the general public, the media) finally admit that polling has died with landline telephones and the Greatest Generation [...]?
Actually, polls during the mid-20th century weren't necessarily more accurate than polls conducted over the last 50 years or so. An article published by 538 shortly after the 2020 election indicated that from 1936 to 1968, the average polling error between Gallup's final pre-Election Day poll and the actual NPV results from those years was almost 6 points, whereas the average polling error from 1972 to 2020 when polling averages from those years were calculated using 538's standards (1972 was the earliest election cycle where there was sufficient polling to use 538's model) was just 2 points.
