Honestly I think it's because there was a passion for making games in older games that just isn't there now. It's more of a money scheme and how fast and how many can we get out. I remember waiting years for a game to come out because they wanted to put out a game they could be proud of and just as excited about as the gamers buying it. They need people with the passion for the story, the lore and the history of the game to make games again. People just as excited to make the game as to watch people play their game. Imo I think a lot of new gamers are finally seeing the difference.
I've seen younger content creators playing Skyrim for the 1st time and being like wow the water reacts to you, the object in the game react to you, holy crap you can hit the guards, you can hit npc, you can hit all the animals, what is going on here this is incredible. It's like mediocre games have become so normal that when they see a game that isn't they are shocked that it was possible then they start to say we'll engines are better now graphics are better, we can put more content into games so why aren't the getting better.