I think that the period we're in right now is also a very similar watershed. What used to be quite 'powerful' swear words such as 'fuck' and shit' are now just a normal part of informal speech, that don't carry any actual taboo. We have now developed a new set of very real actually culturally taboo "curse words".
These new curse words are in fact so taboo that the most powerful of them cannot even be uttered in a context of explaining that someone else said them, and can only be referenced in an oblique manner such as 'he said the N-word' or 'they uttered a homophobic slur'
These new curse words are in fact so taboo that the most powerful of them cannot even be uttered in a context of explaining that someone else said them, and can only be referenced in an oblique manner such as 'he said the N-word' or 'they uttered a homophobic slur'