You know how everyone seems to refer to the days when Thatcher was in charge as really awful?

I've never learnt about Thatcherism and its one of the things I'm really blank on. I hardly know anything about it. But most people seem to hate her to death. Like, on these reminiscent programmes about life in the 80s, they make out there was a nationwide longing for change and all that sort of thing.

What I don't understand then, is how the Tories were in cabinet from 1979 to 1997. Surely, if the country hated her so much, it would've taken a lot less than almost two decades to get rid of her?

Like I say, I'm not sure what she did, apart from all the privatisation stuff and the Falklands, but I know that she seems to be universally hated by everyone. People can't have been that pissed off with the Tories if they stayed in for 18 years?