I think one main factor is privacy first thinking. Obviously security is important, and we should make software secure, but todays coders would rather just not

I think one main factor is privacy first thinking. Obviously security is important, and we should make software secure, but todays coders would rather just not have certain things at all(Like smart devices) than try to secure them. The other thing is smartphones. They are better than any old gadget. But they don't have the cool factor exactly. SaaS is the other thing. SaaS might be practical but it is never "cool". It goes away when the internet does, and can be cancelled at any time. The other thing is set and setting, and tolerance. I know basically nothing about drugs, but any material thing that gives you a dopamine hit is often thought of like a drug. We don't remember the amazing quality of video games, even though that was better too. We remember split screen multiplayer, staying out to get stuff on launch day, lan parties and the people we went there with, and all kinds of other stuff. If I was into HAM, I think I'd be in it for field day, conversations with the elmers, learning about history, maybe vague ideas of preparedness, etc. The current philosophy of products in general is minimalism. We have elegant restaurant focused entirely on the food, not rainforest cafes. We focus on things by themselves, as isolated standalone things, trying to build the platonic ideal of a chat app or a text editor. But... tech and food and money and drugs and clothes and everything else like that is just kind of OK. Context is everything as far as emotional impact, and it has a role in practicality too, the most useful software is often not a pure ideal of some function, it's designed around a common real world issue. Tech is now advanced enough to do things entirely virtually. The setting is gone. You don't haul a box to a lan party. Also, saturation and competition. Tech used to seem like something where buying some gadget made you able to do things nobody else could. If you got a camera, you were a photographer, because they were expensive and hard to use and there was no Instagram. The high barrier to entry made fame and success seem like it was a matter of dedication that you could achieve by saving up and studying some books, rather than random chance, being good looking, or being born with world-class talent. You could still do something new and interesting without spending ten years and 100k on it. 99% of the startups these days seem to be an existing thing, but worse, with NFTs. There was also almost no true clickbait. Much more of the internet content was made by users. I believe the "Golden age" was probably from about '83(Just a guess, I wasn't here yet), to about 2006, with the transition completed by 2010. Once endless scrolling and phones all day took over... Where's the market for any other tech? Only a few specific things are still relevant in a world where life is mostly on a screen, with just ten minute long interludes in physical space.