From the earliest days, Skunk strains were "it". And Columbia Gold, Panamanian Red, Hawaiian (far ahead of the rest of the USA at the time)
What happened however, being honest, is one day folks started going to Amsterdam and smuggling back buds that looked like beautiful yarn and premium seeds. Potent, pretty, delicious. Very hard to surpass except in local circles.
Bringing the seeds here from the banks, and development in the various locales (West Coast, Florida, NYC, Arizona/Texas, Midwest). Once those genetics got here and began to be grown in premium climates (i.e. California, Hawaii, Midwest), it all changed.
Competition against the brick buds (which were sometimes very potent) began and once high quality genetics proliferated across the US, the barrier to great bud -- which at the time was getting it across the border...no longer mattered. It all was grown here in the US, and we Americanized the industry into much of the good and bad we have today.