There was a discussion recently by a number of long-time accounts on how this seems to actually be coming to pass, and that the quality of submissions hitting the front page has clearly decreased. I can't say I disagree.
That said, I'm just as annoyed as the next guy at the inefficiency that the IRS seems to be trying to foist into the economy to help them raise revenues.
"If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)"
[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html