Scoring in terms of parity was always equal.
A role player scored 85 Pts in the 80's while in the 90's they scored 50 Pts.
Still the difference between role players and superstars is similar throughout.
A superstar player in the 80's scored about 140 Pts while in the 90's they scored about 100-110 points.
Still it was a similar ratio.
Also you had hegemonic scoring champs in the 80's (Lemieux- Gretzky) just like in the 90's (Jagr- Lemieux).
Wrong on so many points.
1) Role players did not score 85 points in the 80s. Stars did.
2) Superstars in the 80s did not score 140 points. They scored in the 100-130 point range for the most part just like they have, with some exceptions, since the 70s.
There have been 24 seasons in NHL history where a player scored 140 points or more in a season. 16 of those seasons were Lemieux or Gretzky.
Of the remaining 8 seasons:
2 were in the 70s (Espo)
1 was in 81-82 (Bossy)
2 were in 88-89 (Yzerman, Nicholls)
3 were in the early-mid 90s (Lafontaine, Oates, Jagr)
Each decade from the 70s to the 90s has almost the same number of monstrous seasons by anyone not named Lemieux / Gretzky.
3) The ratio of front line players to depth as far as scoring is concerned did change as TDMM pointed out. Therefore straight adjustment by league average goals per game (which is shoddy at best but an ok rough check) does favour dead puck era players over their 80s counterparts in many cases.