They didn’t have pills 30 years ago?
The medications were available then. Regrettably they just didn't know how to diagnose Lyme early enough to treat it with antibiotics to prevent it going to the chronic state. The disease was only described in 1975 and the causative agent, Borrelia burgdorferi, wasn't identified until the early 80s. Additionally at that point it was a diagnosis by exclusion as there were no direct diagnostic tests so they had to "rule out" a bunch of other possibilities before exploring the possibility of Lyme.
And once again Wader, thanks for another pertinent and informative post. I do hope your "comical" posts to critical topics of concern continue to amuse yourself.