Comment by midoridensha

Exactly. It's much like the music industry (though kinda the opposite), where a bunch of people claim "you're just getting old, music today isn't any worse than in the 1970s". It's not true: the commercial music industry these days is completely different, and part of it is the sound engineering. Back then, they mixed music to be played on Hi-Fi systems at home, and music had very wide dynamic range; these days, they mix music to be played through earbuds in a noisy environment, and music is highly compressed (and the production process is just the tip of the iceberg).