Why the late twentieth century saw few fleet battles

Why were there so few large naval conflicts in the later twentieth century?

Cold War deterrence made direct naval gunfire or missile combat an obvious step into open war, so states preferred lower-level and more deniable pressure.

Cold War escalation risks discouraged major fleets from fighting one another directly. Small groups of troops could sometimes act without their governments openly accepting responsibility, while a warship opening fire was harder to conceal or disavow. Naval rivalry therefore included ramming and disruptive manoeuvres around task groups below the threshold of acknowledged war. Once ships exchanged fire, keeping the confrontation politically ambiguous became much harder. Large Chinese coastguard ships, including vessels described as about 14,000 tons, illustrate the scale of forces that can operate in this grey area.