That's not the "only change". If were, that's still a feature, not a bug. It means that real consequences are possible, and that those possible consequences are widely understood.
One is never going to change the mind and heart of a deeply racist person, but one can help bend the overall curve of intolerance over time.
For example, I posit (without proof) that, because we have effectively banned hateful racist speech in most standard professional workplaces, the people who work in those environments and used to suffer harm (through being forced to work in an openly hostile environment to them, through being denied advancement or equitable compensation, through the mental stress of being the target of hate speech, etc.), that those people suffer less harm today then they used to.
- Is it perfect now? No.
- Can people still be secretly denied promotions because of racism? Absolutely.
- Does it happen less frequently in the aggregate than it used to 40-50 years ago? Almost certainly, though I base this claim on common sense for now (don't have scientific sources handy but I'm sure I can find some).
My grandparents used the N word freely.
My parents used the C word on occasion when they were younger and grew out of it.
I don't use either, and neither do my kids.
Generations don't exist in bubbles. They are shaped and influenced by popular society just as much as their local communities.
30 years ago, the AIDS epidemic was a punchline.
17 years ago, you couldn't be openly gay in the military and the majority of people in the US supported it.
Now, most people are in favor of gay marriage and a sizeable percentage are fine with trans rights.
The best part about bigots is that they are mortal.
And they cling to power. The party that opposed gay marriage now controls 67% of the voting power on the court that legalized it. If that case came up again today, it would almost certainly go the other way. And they may, in fact, find ways to re-litigate it.
Even when the majority of that party switched to be in favor if it, they continue to vote for leadership who opposed it. Laws against trans rights are being enshrined in law literally as we speak, and it will take a very long time to scrub them off the books.
They're mortal, but I take no joy in that. They have disproportionate power, and as it dims, they use it harder and harder.
The only change is that you now have a bunch of people who are afraid to use a handful of naughty words in public because they might lose their job over it. You haven't changed any minds or hearts, you've just moved the conversations into private rooms. You can't end racism by just shaming people for using the n-word. It's arguably just as bad now as it was during the Civil Rights era, but you can't easily see it anymore because it's mostly kept within "friendly" company.