Over the centuries we have put more and more things in that public realm and lately just lately in the last lets say in the last three or four decades started pulling them out again.
[だい, dai] (n, n-suf) (1) charge; cost; price; (2) (See 台・だい・6) generation; age; reign; (3) (geological) era; (4) (after someone's name or title) a representative of; on behalf of; for (someone); (5) (See 代表電話番号) used after a phone number to indicate that it is a switchboard number; (ctr) (6) (See 台・だい・6) counter for decades of ages, eras, etc.; (7) counter for generations (of inheritors to a throne, etc.); (8) (abbr) (See 代理申請会社) proxy application company#376