Yes, on the latter point: vacation time and pensions typically increased based on length of service with the company. You ended up with a much worse pension if you had 10 years' service with each of four companies, than if you had 40 years' service with one company, under the traditional defined-benefit pension schemes.
There are probably a lot of cultural changes influencing it though, perhaps more; changing jobs frequently as a salaried professional just wasn't something many people in my dad's generation actively considered. One of many factors might be the change in how promotions are done; it used to much more often be "within the ranks". You worked your way up to FooBar VP or even FooBar CEO by starting in a regular job and getting promoted up the ladder, which required staying at the company for a long time. Now it's more common to hire external people right into senior posts.
Yeah, one of the long term benefits was that you could work there your whole career, if you wanted to. By the mid-80s though, it was clear that layoffs were to become a regular fixture of corporate life.
There are probably a lot of cultural changes influencing it though, perhaps more; changing jobs frequently as a salaried professional just wasn't something many people in my dad's generation actively considered. One of many factors might be the change in how promotions are done; it used to much more often be "within the ranks". You worked your way up to FooBar VP or even FooBar CEO by starting in a regular job and getting promoted up the ladder, which required staying at the company for a long time. Now it's more common to hire external people right into senior posts.