Not sully the Power Meter thread any further than one person has tried. Here are the current World Records.
Apart from the U19 and Elite Men's Kilo times all the World Records for events contested at World Championships are very current. And even then the Kilo record is 2001. Both Kilo records were set at Altitude and it is very rare that Track Worlds are run at Altitude, Columbia 1995 and then Colorado Springs 1986. And of course Olympic Games was Mexico!
So while one can not provide any evidence that it is power meters have changed the playing field, I would say UCI regs and drugs have been the biggest factors, one would be naive to say that the sport has progressed.
http://www.uci.ch/templates/BUILTIN-NOFRAMES/Template1/layout.asp?MenuId=MTYzODY&LangId=1
Apart from the U19 and Elite Men's Kilo times all the World Records for events contested at World Championships are very current. And even then the Kilo record is 2001. Both Kilo records were set at Altitude and it is very rare that Track Worlds are run at Altitude, Columbia 1995 and then Colorado Springs 1986. And of course Olympic Games was Mexico!
So while one can not provide any evidence that it is power meters have changed the playing field, I would say UCI regs and drugs have been the biggest factors, one would be naive to say that the sport has progressed.
http://www.uci.ch/templates/BUILTIN-NOFRAMES/Template1/layout.asp?MenuId=MTYzODY&LangId=1