I think there was a lot of DIY in the post-Depression, wartime, and immediately post-war economy. Could be just my family experience, but both sets of my grandparents had a very strong "use it up, wear it out, make it do" philosophy and that included fixing/bodging when appropriate.

Over half the 70 year old guys I know can repair 1960's era cars. First they where relatively simple, second they broke down often. If you made a lot of money then pay someone else, otherwise you where on the sliding scale.

Basically it was like PC repair before laptops. Even if you did not know how to do it working from a good book you would muddle through it.

Even if you didn't know how to fix that car or washing machine, there was a good chance someone in or close to your family - your uncle, your son's girlfriend, etc. - could do that for you. Many of such people started repair shops that could fix pretty much any device of a given category. This secondary repair market is what's disappearing thanks to stuff being less serviceable and more disposable.

> Even 30 years ago most people didn't know how to fix those machines.

True, people would use washing machine repair shops. Today you can't do that because the machines have been designed to not be repairable. They come with sealed tubs. People can replace the tubs, but that's a lot more expensive than replacing just the bearings.