The following is a great article written by Iain Abernethy, a top British Martial Artist and author. There is a link to his website at the end of this exerpt.  As you will discover, most karate practised now is in fact "modern", sanitised karate, far different from that practised in previous days.
 
The title of this article is ‘What is Traditional Karate?’ And that may seem like a strange question for a traditional karateka to ask! But it is my view that we often do not think what ‘traditional’ actually means, and how that impacts upon the art we practice. The dictionary definition of ‘traditional’ is, “adhering to a long established procedure.” To play devil’s advocate for a moment, I’d suggest that the majority of karate practised in this country today is not traditional! My reasoning is that much of today’s karate is not “adhering to a long established procedure” but is in fact only a few decades old.

There can be little doubt that karate does not have the same status it did in the past. To the wider martial arts community, Traditional Karate is often viewed as an out-dated relic and a wholly ineffective system. Karate is often criticised for its lack of realism, its lack of close-range techniques, its preoccupation with “looking good”, its omission of ground work, the unrealistic nature of its sparring, the impracticality of its techniques etc. And I have to admit that in many cases these criticisms are justified! However, it is not ‘Traditional Karate’ that is at fault, but its modern interpretation. The confusing part of all this is that modern karate is often incorrectly labelled as ‘Traditional’! Just to be clear, it is in no way my intention to belittle modern karate, merely to point out that the modern version of karate is nowhere near as effective in real combat as the karate of old.

Read more at iainabernethy.co.uk