my own experiences would lead me to believe that there is actually much less variation of handling traits & geometries amoungst 'modern' bikes than there ever were in the past.
i've encountered far fewer steep and quick handling bikes and at the same time don't see many slack and gentle steering bikes on the market these days either.
my thinking is that with the adoption of carbon forks with their limited rake options that modern bikes, as a whole, have become more homogenous and similar handling,even formulaic, rarely falling outside of a very narrow range of angles,geometries or trail figures and to a degree, lacking in personality(not entirely a bad thing, btw, esp considering a few notable handling abominations of yore).

k