'huge, queer and tawdry' but 'much admired by the public'

You were a bit. The specific change you suggested - that everything had moved slightly to the left - would functionally be no change at all. But even in instances where something has changed, while you'd think nobody should remember, there is ample material from which to deduce the suggestion that some records somehow survive. John Crowley's Aegypt books being my personal favorite on this, though Grant Morrison and Alan Moore have both also had fun with it.