Are we at the end of the golden age of the hacker?

 “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

— Clarke’s Law #3

Technology is always in a cycle of abstraction/simplification as complex systems are standardized. My grandfather is one of the three people on the variable magnetron patent that helped microwaves become mainstream. He told me 15 years ago that he felt he could count on his hand the number of people left on the planet who truly understood radio anymore, because it's all just packaged into chips.

There's a natural cycle of abstraction that hides complexities so people don't even know what's happening inside, and they don't care. Worse: AI is accelerating this entire cycle in our society.

I think it's most telling in the idea of a hacker (not criminal, but the real meaning as someone who just loves to dig into something and figuring it out, and has not just the drive but enough know how to be able to do it).

I started tech in 1990 during college, I hacked on Netrek to learn C. I knew lots of people who had this mindset. I've seen it flourish through the 90's and 2000's.

But I see it declining, and I really do wonder—are we at the end of the golden age of the hacker?