As containers became adopted, shipping ports specializing as container ports came to dominate world trade in terms of shipping volume. These ports were designed to bring the port, rail, and highway together. Crane operators efficiently loaded and unloaded containers. There was a flywheel effect as, more efficient container ports were expanded to accomodate larger container ships, which in turn, had port cities investing in more container port capabilities. Traditional ports died, with shipping consolidating into a much smaller group of container ports. As long as there were sufficient rail and highway access to those ports, goods could still be distributed inland.
Along with the rise of the minicomputer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minicomputer) to handle logistics, what we got was a world-wide logistics network that enabled things like just-in-time manufacturing.
The late 1960s and early 1970s was also about the time ecological consciousness became more prominent. I hear from the old permacuturists and ecologists living through those times when large swaths of ecosystems were destroyed to expand things commercially. With healthy natural ecosystems, you could live land-rich, cash-poor. But with the ability to ship things easily and cheaply all throughout the world, local ecosystems became exploited and overharvested (the end-consumers had no personal stake in the ecosystem from which those resources were extracted from).
As productization and monetization of ... everything, including basic essentials of living, is it any surprise that real wages have not risen?