This may be getting a bit off topic, but I suspect there have always been local strongmen/warlords.
What perhaps has changed is that in the aftermath of WW2 in which guns became mass produced, automatic weapons are now vastly easier to obtain. So the warlords can extend their reach more easily with fewer followers because of the force multiplier effect.
It is one of the enduring regrets of my life that I never did the backpack gap year &/or the hippie trail after university when it was still possible. The world seems to have gotten much more dangerous since then…
But we should probably move that discussion to a different thread,