It was possible to obtain a digital copy, but you needed special equipment.

Most government data was only available on 9-track tapes. So few media outlets had the necessary equipment that reporters' groups would publish step-by-step information about how to get it done, and with what hardware.

On the consumer level? Forget about it.

Cartography predates computers, many maps were kept as the majority of technical documents are kept: in a physical archive.

Yes, but digital maps are old enough that my elementary school had a networked GIS package to show us maps in the computer lab in the early 90s, and it's much older than that.

That hasn't always been true. USGS topo maps, for example, were originally drawn and plotted on paper and had to be digitized. At one point, I think they had a way to request a digital scan, but there was a processing fee.

Now almost all of that data available online for free from their website, and they have ways to access it in bulk and via API.

I think the bigger problem nowadays is accessing GIS data from different cities and local governments. Many states and cities put the data online, but each one organizes it differently, possibly in different formats, with different methods for accessing it.