In the 1980s, founders who approached VCs were more like supplicants who had comparatively little knowledge or sophistication about how to deal with an elite group on whom they utterly depended and whose power in relation to theirs was lopsidedly overwhelming. Due-diligence cycles, for example, could easily extend a year or more as the founders hoped for the best that their much-needed capital would come to them one way or the other.
Today, founders have far more knowledge and sophistication in dealing with VCs and, even more important, a typically broader range of choices. It is much easier today to come up with winning business models that either bypass or defer VC funding in ways that give founders potentially more leverage than they once had. When dealing with VCs today, founders also have a much greater understanding of potential pitfalls and abuses (such as those highlighted in this piece).
It is the same dance as 25 years ago but the average founder no longer is led (more or less) blindly as before. The dynamic has tipped more in the founders' direction, and this change is here to stay. Think of it as a relative empowerment of founders in relation to those of the past.