It is definitely there even on modern planes. My Cessna 150 will always work itself into a steepening right spiral if there is no correction from level cruise flight.
Cessna 150 has almost no dihedral to the wings much less than Cessna 172 and significantly less than low wing Piper.
The 172's and Piper's I have flown don't fly along perfectly straight and stable by themselves. I once flew a Piper Cherokee 140 for about 40min with nothing but my feet to keep it straight. That was the closest, but it still took some correction to keep her from doing what she wanted.
I used my 150 for an example because it's mine and I know exactly what it does.
