I recall when I was younger (I'm F53) that if you were out for a few people for a meal/coffee it was absolutely normal for one person to pick up the bill. In fact there was usually a pretend argument over who would pay when the bill came. "I'll get this one“ “No, don't be silly I'll get this one, it's my turn" etc, which would go on for about a minute till someone would 'give in'. If it was a regular thing, people would take turns and everyone would know whose turn it was but would sometimes still go through this ritual.
Then we went through a phase (possibly my generation, GenX) where splitting the bill was the thing to do. That went on a while, but you would never suggest it to your granny.
Now it's more common, I think, for people to either split the bill, or to pay their own share (especially where people might not be eating drinking a comparable amount).
I am somewhere in the middle. I'll always suggest splitting, but if I know I've eaten or drank more than others I'll say so and suggest paying our own share. But there are some friends who would be offended by that. I also have friends who will insist on picking up the whole bill, and I will do the ritual with them, but I'm only offering once. If you insist after that, I'm letting you pay.
I'm just interested in people's experiences with this over the years/decades, and their opinions, and whether it's particular to certain generations.