One of the biggest industrial-scale examples of abstraction failure is OOP GUI's. They were an abstract interface, meaning in theory they could adapt to ANY fut

One of the biggest industrial-scale examples of abstraction failure is OOP GUI's. They were an abstract interface, meaning in theory they could adapt to ANY future UI interface or standard. But the "the Web" came and took a shot-gun to it by not preserving program state, and by mostly forcing one to let the client determine the final layout (positioning). The existing OOP GUI engines ASSUMED the engine controlled both state and final positioning, because it had usually been that way in the past. But Web-land said, "Sorry, Dave, I cannot do that.", and so the engines were largely abandoned in back dumpsters. (Web UI can turn one prematurely grey, but that's another story.)