There were decent and reasonably thin layers over that to solve the immediate practical issues (e.g. Delphi, MFC), but they're no longer fashionable and nothing

There were decent and reasonably thin layers over that to solve the immediate practical issues (e.g. Delphi, MFC), but they're no longer fashionable and nothing seems to have replaced them in the same space. Maybe we need a "NoFramework" phase to get back to RAD again?