Ok,
Popular Vote winners:
1988: Bush (R)
1992: Clinton (D)
1996: Clinton (D)
2000: Gore (D)
2004: Bush (R)
2008: Obama (D)
2012: Obama (D)
2016: Clinton (D)
2020: Biden (D) - Per scenario in post
I think that's 7 out of 8 from 1992 through 2020, so we're good there.
And the near 40 years would be from 1988 - 2024 (36 years) with the only win in that timeframe being Bush 2004. Unless you want to start counting from 1992, (32 years).
Did I miss something? (to be clear, this is a sincere post, not sarcasm)
EDIT: I think I see the problem. I wasn't clear in my original statement, it should have just ended with "The D's won the popular vote", not and "lost the electoral college". If that were the case it would just be R's all the way through. My intent was to show that the R's have only won a single popular vote over a long period of time - which is pretty crazy to me. I hadn't realized it had swung like this for so long.