[eventualhorizon]

The chicken tax effectively killed foreign competition for light trucks and domestic automakers punted as mid-full size trucks are more profitable.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

[megaman22]

That doesn't seem right. Toyota Tacomas, Nissans, Ford Rangers, Chevy S10s, etc have been popular throughout that period.

The only thing I can think of is emissions mandates that have made the full-size pickups roughly equivalent to the mpg advantage that light trucks used to have.