It was also a time when the whole societal landscape was different: peasants farmed because it was their way to survive and the aristocracy lived on the labor of the former without having to work. What changed now it that almost everybody need "a job" and the attention and time of a lot of smart people is distracted by that. That's also the reason why people professionalize themselves by going to the academia. In my case, I would do research and experimenting new ideas no matter what, but joining an PhD program is the way to put bread on the table.