I prefer a bowl of cobwebs.

There is still some shining examples of the craft out there, and Directors that give a shit and people that work exceptionally hard on films, and that are exceptionally talented. There is also a lot of bowls of both shit and spit produced every year.

This has been true all along though, take a look at the films released the same year as some of the best films of all time, there are plenty of soul-less quick money-grab turkeys out there amongst the gold, and plenty of films decried as crap at the time that 15 years later are now lauded as masterpieces. Remember, there are only ever 200-500 or so 'great films' out of the over 500,000 features that have been made, so there is plenty of crap, even in the best years of movie making.

Some of the craft is definitely disappearing, as is some of the ability to discern great work from good work and good work from poor work. When working for Kennedy Miller, I saw work come back that the people were extremely proud of, that George, quite rightly said outright was shit, (although sometimes he was just tired and called work shit that the next day he said was perfect, and asked why it wasn't done that way the first time... it was the same footage) and they went back and did a better job on it, and developed an eye for what constitutes great work. It was certainly just accepted that anyone could critique your work brutally, and you just got on with making it better. I do see people get 'hurt feelings' more readily now, which tends to lead to less criticism which is not a good thing.

I also think there is less mentoring now and people dive in too fast with too little time spent understanding the basics of the craft, it is certainly true amongst colourists.

Some of the craft has improved immeasurably though, and it is certainly far more accessible, and easier to find great resources and access to knowledge, but I do wish that more one on one mentoring was taking place within the industry.