One thing you bring up is one of the main points for me; the lack of opposition. When I was growing up with the threat of "the bomb", CND was a massive presence even if you only counted the badges you'd see people wearing. It was in the conversation, on the streets and in the news.

Now it still exists but it has been starved of any publicity and politically there is nobody that talks about cutting back nuclear arms, or ideally removing them (although I think that genie is never going to go back in the bottle).

In fact it's even worse than no opposition, as Ken notes below; their use has become something that is actually considered. "Battlefield nukes" are just treated as another option.

I just read that new Annie Jacobsen book "Nuclear War" and while it was slightly predictable than the "bad guy" that started the end of the world was North Korea it was a really chilling read; actually gripping even though you didn't want to be "into" it. It's a minute by minute dramatisation of how a nuclear armageddon could come about and reminds us of quite how little control there is once even one missile starts flying. The stuff about nuclear submarines is particularly frightening and a reminder of how sanitised it all is; when they come up in the news it's always "nuclear deterrent" this and "submarine fleet" that instead of undetecable end of the world many times over machines.

I think she should have used Ukraine/Russia/NATO as the inititating theatre and given a few people more pause for thought.