I don't see material differences between HN from 5 years ago and now.

Maybe 15 years ago HN was a truly different forum. The "tech" world was much smaller then, making this little corner of web rather esoteric and only of interest to an educated audience.

Additionally, there was still techno-optimism in the late 2000's and early 2010's so you'd have more positive comments and less American politics. 2016 always struck me as the turning point, not just for HN but for most of the web.