I think this is not an age thing. Tech really did become less cool and the dangers more apparent. For an example from my own life, VR is amazing and every bit as exciting as my first discovery of tech when I was a kid. AI is still making incredibly interesting steps forward. Much of the rest of the industry has calcified. That does not make the colossus of what we have built over the past 80 year less incredible, it's just old news and there is not much novelty to keep up on. Society as a whole has sensed this and has largely moved on from geek is chic.

The drought is going to to be over when a new fundamental shift in platform occurs which will kick off a new generation of startups, frameworks, applications, wonders and terrors.