Nah - it's been going on forever. Well, not knowing how old you are, maybe this did happen in your lifetime :).
Various "Commies" have been the Great Enemy since WWII, with occasional diversions into "terrorists/terrorism" (pick your flavour). Remember the Axis of Evil? Now that the Al-Qaida/ISIS threats are fading, Iraq is a shambles, and the Norks are officially Nice Guys, we're only left with Iran out of that lot, so now we have to go back to the Filthy Commies to keep the threat levels up.
Are you old enough to remember the 1950's, when America was supposed to be under threat of instant annihilation, and everyone needed to practice their atomic bomb drills?
TBF I don't know who the Great Enemy was before WWII - hopefully some of our USAian Commentards can fill us in?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
