Part of it is automation. "Peopleware" has an episode about human-mediated processes vs. machine-mediated processes that explains a lot of it: In the past, wha

Part of it is automation. "Peopleware" has an episode about human-mediated processes vs. machine-mediated processes that explains a lot of it: In the past, whatever you needed done, was done through human action even if they used machines. So there was a good chance that somewhere along the way, there would be someone who'd notice and check/fix, or at least would be able to help you when things go wrong. But with increased automation, every mistake is amplified and carried to completion much more efficiently -- and the humans you can talk to are often minimum wage people who are not very familiar and are not authorized to modify anything about the processing stages. There are 1/100 or 1/1000 as many people who can actually help you as there were 40 years ago -- and by that I mean actually help you, that is - fix wrong data, override automated processes, etc; not just read from a script.