Times have indeed changed and with the relative peace we've had in Europe and elsewhere, this has allowed some of the multi-generational families we have in the UK today.
I never knew either of my grandfathers. One died in Burma in WW2, fighting the Japs, having already survived WW1 after joining up at age '16' and stayed on and made a career in the Army. The other was also killed in WW2, in North Africa.
Previously, we had relative peace in Europe between 1815 and 1914. I guess there were plenty of multi-generational families then too.