I suspect it’s the more linked to the rise in motorcycles, as people adopted them as a lifestyle choice and sales rocketed. That lifestyle often involves making a noise, by choice. The consequence, is that restrictions and - in rare, but increasing circumstances - outright bans during pre-set periods come in and / or other policed enforcement.
I was as guilty as the next man of many of the crimes, including being fined in Austria for an illegal exhaust on my F800R, along with several speeding tickets in France. Looking back, was it clever? No, I don’t think so and, in a way, I have played my part in what we see today. Too late, the genie is out of the bottle and it won’t go back in any time soon.