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The judiciary have never understood that most disputes never got anywhere near courts because solicitors, the first port of call, usually tried to reach a settlement acceptable to both sides...even if not necessarily very palatable.
Solicitors understood that as Elizabeth l said "I do not like war; it is costly and the outcome uncertain". The same with litigation.
And then our rulers decided to change things. Litigation was too expensive ( who knew....?) so the US system would be adopted, followed by Woolf with front end loading at which point litigation became all or nothing. Thus no incentive not to litigate.
So there was "ADR" long before the trendy acronym.....