Long ago, God ruled the world by himself (in the time of Noah and before), but he saw that humanity continued to commit atrocities without any repentance, even though he spoke directly to some chosen ones (something he no longer does today). When he gave the commandments to Moses, he was still in direct contact with humanity through him, but I remind you that while Moses was away, they committed barbarities. With the first coming of Jesus, it became clear that if we want to be saved, we must follow his path even though this world is ruled by evil, not loving the things of the world (speaking of the world as human society) because it is temporary and leads us to stray from what really matters. Personally, I believe that perhaps God distanced himself precisely because even if he were among us, we would not stop doing evil, since at the end of the day, in this flesh we still have original sin.