When given the choice between working several hours at a job you don't like to pay for entertainment verses using a free option for entertainment that is just as good if not better, many people are choosing the former.
Here is another example:
If you asked 100 random 20 year olds in 1985 what "success" looks like. There is a high likelihood some would mention large house, BMW, pool in the back yard, large TV, executive at a large company.
If you did the same thing today you are much less likely to get that answer. Today you are much more likely to get millions of subscribers on YouTube or Instagram and no need for a full time job.
If that's true, that sounds like progress to me.
There are methods of profit maximization whose abstract functionality is basically the same, the only thing that changes are the parameters.
I sincerely believe administrative sciences tend to not make clear abstractions out of this, since that is... hard...