The sentiment was always there. The problem was that available infrastructures and technologies at the time didn't provided them with feasible means to enact their plans.

Social media wasn't a thing, the discourse could not be fully controlled. Not everyone had a trackable electronic device in their pocket. The long march through the institutions was still in progress.

Makes no mistake, they always wanted all dissent dead and ruined. They simply didn't had the means to make it so.