I think maybe the point of the comment is that there were countervailing forces in society at one point, e.g. the dictates of certain religions. That aspect of society is substantially weakened in our time (ethical codes of living are broadly considered antiquated and ridiculous in modern societies), so the focus on greed or greed-adjacent motivations are less restrained. Whether that is a Good Thing (tm) is up for debate, but it seems like a reasonable statement to me.