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Originally Posted by jaydee116
What I am saying is there are many less people interested in doing the work to make something custom. Which in turn makes it a lost art if hardly anyone is doing it anymore.
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...and I would say that this is a consequence of the early adopter phenomenon.
Whenever something new (to explore) comes along, there's always those who will leap in boots'n'all and explore it while others sit back at home and say that it's all too scary.
These same pioneers are the ones responsible for developing the art. The art is not lost, it's just got commercial. The "art" lives on in every one of those pioneers, but many of them have moved on and the "torch" is passed on to those who will drive it to the next level.
I guess what I'm saying is that the "art" is not lost, but the "pioneering" stage is over, and maybe it is really this that you lament the loss of.
All technologies go through the stages of discovery/pioneering, transition to mass acceptance/production, then ongoing sustaining and ubiquity. The reason why there's less pioneer's about is because there's less and less to pioneer. The "art" is not gone, but rather the mystery, and it is the mystery that gets the pioneer's (what you're calling DIY'ers) involved.
It's somewhat related to the life-cycle of a company. The most exciting (and dangerous) times are always to be had at the beginning, and this attracts and requires a certain kind of people. Once that stage is over, these people get bored pretty quickly and move on, and leave the show to the mass producers/sustainers.
The show and the art goes on, just that the pioneers have left the stage.