Meaning the previous era's practitioners weren't holding themselves to the results of their contributions.
(emphasis mine)
Interesting word choice there. It makes me unsure what you mean.
If I don’t hold myself responsible for the consequences of my actions, I am irresponsible or undisciplined, possibly reckless. (These words imply a value judgment, though, so you wouldn’t use them in an academic or professional context without weighing them pretty carefully. But then, accountability is a loaded word too.)
If nobody else is holding me responsible, the environment is unregulated, ungoverned, unstructured, unmanaged, or lax; there is a Wild West atmosphere or perhaps lawlessness, indifference, or amorality; or to lapse completely into jargon, there is no social mechanism to keep me in line.
Social forces comes in a lot of shapes. Maybe it would be best to scrap that sentence and describe the change in question more precisely.