I suspect that there is also a "conditioning" factor.

How many people grow up in the "conditions of yesteryear.

Helping "dad" behead the "Sunday roast" chicken.

Wringing the necks of quail or pigeons.

Watching the shooting of an old family horse or dog because it can't stand up anymore.

Having family members of all ages die in their beds in the same house.

Helping butcher a familiar cow / goat / sheep etc, for food for the family.

.......and so on and on.

One of the huge changes wrought in the 20th Century was the "isolation" of death.

Meat is something that arrives in neatly cut pieces on styrene trays and wrapped in polythene.

Almost NOBODY except hunters and farmers kill and butcher their own meat.

People die in hospitals or "respite" centres.

The survival rate for disease AND combat injury is incredible in comparison with ANY time pre-WW2, thanks to medical science.

TV and films provide a weirdly "sanitized" portrayal of death and maiming: there are none of those distinctive "smells" for a start.

I have never been in combat and I am keeping my fingers crossed. However, I have ended up on the scene of several very nasty road "accidents", including a few "fatals". After the "training" has played its role to get things done, the knees go wobbly and "a good sit-down, black humour and a stiff drink" are in order, especially after the really "messy" ones. How the ambulance crews, cops and fieries etc, who deal with it on a daily basis, cope, is astounding.

Another situation is the train drivers who literally come face-to-face with suicidal types who step out onto the tracks and look straight into the drivers cabin up to the point of impact. A friend of mine decided to get another job after he had "collected" his third suicide with the front of his train. Most of his fellow drivers who have experienced the same, "retire" after the first one; counseling can only do so much.