>before 9/11 caused them to tighten up the rules,

You mean "before the Weather Underground blew up a bunch of random shit with hardware store dynamite in the 1970s".

>It still isn't difficult today from my understanding, there is just more paperwork.

The paperwork and compliance is enough of an expensive PITA it precludes everyone who isn't a regular commercial user, which is exactly the point.

It used to be that farmers just cleared forest and blew stumps and rocks up. This might sound absurd but when you start looking at the cost of doing that job with equipment it's preferable if you're rural enough to not endanger anything.

It worked how I described in the late 1990s. I know someone who went through the new process and it didn't seem that onerous. As I recall it isn't that different from the process for getting Global Entry on your passport.

Explosives are still heavily used in mining and construction. Many of those operations are just a couple individuals, not any kind of real company.