Comment by pixl97

> and I'm not sure what's caused it

Why aren't you?

The vast majority of writers at the end of the day write these stories to sell them. The old venues that sold advertising to places where you would read the stories you are talking about are long dead. Google, et al, have sucked up all that money making them a trillion dollars. Now anyone that wants to sell a story is left fighting for pennies on clickbait.