Kanji is also prone to fashion. During the Meiji Era, the mods were chu (loyalty), kun (lord), ai (love) and koku (nation). Politics were condensed into four characters: fukokukyohei (rich nation, strong army). Kind of taps right into the psyche of the period, doesn't it. And the Taisho Era which marked Japan's brief fling with democracy spawned the use of characters like min (people) and ken (rights).
During WWII a lot of weird kanji combinations were invented for public use, like ichiokugyokusai (100 million as one ball, shattering). This was what the Japanese populace was told to do in the event of defeat. Y2K nothing, what a disaster.
Now times being what they are, the kanji en vogue have had a drastic change in personnel. How I know this is because the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation takes an annual national poll of the characters that reflect the world we live in.