Covid brought ton of un certainties where every business thought it can be tech company where only having good tech can solve all of their company problems
Which is not the case for all companies eg : Edtech, ops companies tech can be enabler for these companies but tech alone cant solve all problems
Its different for companies who are building tech products eg: New relic, postman, etc
So the demand was higher for tech people during later period which companies are/will realize soon/later and then take decision result of which we are seeing huge correction in salaries in industry as well
To answer your original Qs
16-19 was not crazy hikes and stuffs where companies were willing to go to any extent for candidates to join them which is also normalising now