I don't know if it's necessarily an anomaly or a sign that the division will be more difficult than usual - Sunderland, Pompey, Charlton and Bolton (if they even get to League 1) have all spent a few years in the bottom two divisions. Ipswich are here for (at least) another season.
It's not that long ago that Sheffield Wednesday were last in the third tier. Southampton, Leicester and Leeds relatively recently as well.
The flipside is that quite a few clubs from cities/regions that have probably underachieved in football terms have got their act together in recent times.
15-20 years ago Bristol City, Cardiff, Swansea, Hull, Brighton would all have been thought of as lower league clubs. But with new stadiums and investment, they're now much closer to fulfilling their potential and occupying places in the PL and Championship.
Pretty depressing to think of the obvious missing name from that list!