The reason for the recent stability is that the Autotools have been essentially unmaintained for the past 15 years. When there were steady releases back in the

The reason for the recent stability is that the Autotools have been essentially unmaintained for the past 15 years. When there were steady releases back in the early 2000s, we experienced regular incompatibilities and breakage. Today, there are occasional releases again, but the tools have painted themselves into a corner--it's almost impossible to make any change of note without breaking things.