As in all things, it's a matter of balance. The only way to get "electrical" accidents down to zero would be to un-invent electricity.
Of course, over the past 50-60 years you talk of, the use of electricity has grown enormously - so it's not surprising that the number of incidents hasn't gone down. I have a suspicion that had the regs not tightened up then the incident rate (in absolute numbers) would have risen along with the rise in use of lecky.
50-60 years ago, lecky was probably one ceiling light in the middle of each room, and one socket in some rooms. That wouldn't have been a big issue as there weren't all that many things to plug in !
EDIT: And because it was "new and magical", many were just scared of it. Today many people are "rather complacent" (remember that "is 240V really dangerous ?" thread ?) as it's one of those things that's "always been there".
Anyone remember a scene from Downton Abbey where a gullible maid was sent to check the sockets were switched off so electricity wouldn't leak out overnight ?
My feeling is that the current situation is "about right". The "vibe" I got in here was that the 2005-2010 regime was so restrictive as to be counterproductive - allowing charlatans to misuse the regs to charge more, and preventing many smaller jobs getting done due to the cost of getting in a sparky to do it, and of course the biggie - driving DIY (or BIY) jobs underground.
As suggested on another thread, unless you can control the supply of materials then there will always be DIY work. Is it better for that to be out in the open, or hushed up and the DIYer afraid to ask for advice ? Even if you restrict supplies - that just provides an incentive to "make do" with whatever you have to hand. Of course, over the years I've never kept hold of any BT branded master sockets that have been removed during "tidying up" works