By and large–and depending which country you’re in–the visible security measures have largely tapered off and have gone behind the scenes. Speaking for US airports, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 there were actual US military (fully armed) staged throughout the airports, military and police officers gave every vehicle about 30 seconds to let their passengers and luggage out before yelling or whistling for the driver to move on. Depending on your age, you might not recall this.

Nowadays the airport experience is pretty predictable. One shows up to the airport, they might give you a hard time for sticking around the passenger drop-off point too long, but at the airports I’ve been to there are people flat out parked waiting to solicit arrivals for rides. You go to the ticketing counter, proceed through initial (and maybe secondary) security screening then go to your gate.

Only the passenger screening process has changed substantially, and that is where you might reasonably expect to see an increased security presence–however effective it may or may not be. Dropoff is now the same as it used to be, ticketing is the same, and the gate experience is largely the same, too.

If you’re referring to your experience at one particular airport, then it’s possible it’s a local configuration and not really representative of other airports.

If you are in the US, and you’d really like, many airports have dedicated viewing areas from where you can watch arriving and departing aircraft, and in general there are no security procedures to enter those areas.