Have you seen how big cars actually were in the past? Like look at the actual numbers of what people actually drove.

Here's a list of most popular cars by year in the US from 1950 onward: https://www.rd.com/list/the-most-popular-car-the-year-you-were-born/

You can pick out times where there actually was a small car that was most popular. 1956 Chevy Corvette. 1961 Jag E-type. 1972 VW Beetle. It never lasts, though (and that's even ignoring the fact that the first two there are sports cars that are specifically made small for performance reasons). To follow up what happened with each of those a year later, 1957 brings the Ford Skyline, which is gigantic. 1962 has the Lincoln Continental, which isn't ridiculously large, but not especially small, either. 1973 is the Chevrolet Monte Carlo which is also more performance oriented, but not that small, either. 1974 brings the Impala, which is rather large for a two-door, and then 1975 is the Cadillac Sedan de Ville, which is the dictionary definition of land yacht. That was right in the middle of an oil crisis where we might expect a move towards smaller cars.

Yes, SUVs are taller and the truck market is absolutely ridiculous, and that does have an affect on pedestrian safety in itself. Popular cars aren't particularly heavier than popular cars from decades ago, though, and they often have a smaller footprint on the road.