You must not see many films.
The 80s had as many classics as any decade. I would say the 1950s has the least, personally, 80s films were awesome though, and film has ALWAYS been corporate, these studios have been multi-million-dollar monopolies since the 20's. In fact it was the corprorate takeovers of 1969, mainly at Warner Brothers, that allowed people like Dennis Hopper to make Easy Rider and George Lucas to make THX1138, and then all the great early-70s films that followed.