Agree with the first part of your post. > I started doing this in the 90s and I feel that there is a growing trend to replace judgement with process and strict

Agree with the first part of your post. > I started doing this in the 90s and I feel that there is a growing trend to replace judgement with process and strict rules. Hmm, I am not quite sure whether I share your sentiment on process and strict rules. I don't mind process if it is actually one that is sensible and leaves freedom to the individual. For example, in my experience as a developer, Scrum can drastrically improve developer-management communication. Story point estimation with estimation cards has always revealed stories with unclear scope or requirements. This requires however, that both sides actively try to improve that process. I have often heard of people who said "Scrum doesn't work" who actually were really running a very weird subset of it (for example burndown charts and velocities, but no proper story point estimation), etc.