  Changes in the flux and spectrum of Eta Carinae since 1900 have been
attributed to the evolution of the central binary by some. Others suggest
evolution in the occulting ejecta. The brightness jump in the 1940s, which
coincided with the appearance of narrow forbidden emission lines, may have been
caused by the clearing and ionization of intervening circumstellar ejecta. The
brightening changed at a slower pace up through forty years later. Here we
continue earlier studies focused on the long-term showing that the forbidden
line emission increased in the early 1990s with no noticeable increase in the
brightness of the Homunculus. We interpret that the increase in narrow line
emission is due to decreased extinction in the LOS from the central binary to
the Weigelt clumps. In 2000, the central stellar core increased in brightness
at a faster rate without associated changes in the Homunculus. By 2018,
hundreds of narrow-line absorptions from singly-ionized metals in our LOS from
Eta Carinae disappeared, thought to be caused by increased ionization of
metals. These three events (1990, 2000, and 2018) are explained by the
dissipation of circumstellar material within the Homunculus close to the
binary. Combining these changes with the steadiness of the Homunculus and the
primary winds over the past four decades indicates that circumstellar ejecta in
our direction have been cleared.
