This might be true in the US but hardly in the entire "western world". Here in France you can give birth in a hospital without ever having a doctor intervening, only midwives, and it is not a new thing.
Yeah, same thing in Denmark. When my girlfriend gave birth, we had 3 midwives assisting. When she lost what they deemed to be too much blood, they called in a doctor to take a look. Everything was fine. If she hadn't passed some specified threshold for bloodloss, we would not have seen a doctor (or a nurse, come to think of it) at all throughout the birth. Only midwives.
My wife's obstetrician's office is about half ARPN-CNMs (Certified Nurse Midwife). She saw the Dr for a few appointments, but mostly the CNMs. A CNM delivered our son in the hospital. The CNM had the Dr available to her if things went badly. For our daughter, we came to the hospital with my wife 9cm dilated and the CNM was unable to get there fast enough. In the end it was good that the Dr was there instead as she was born not breathing and eventually ended up on life-support. Even in that case the CNM was the primary care provider for the entire pregnancy.
We live in the US. I think not enough women use CNMs, but it's not some universal thing that you have to use an obstetrician in the US.
Same in Israel. For all three of my children's hospital births, only a midwife was present. In the first two, by my request, she instructed me what to do instead of doing it herself. And being in a hospital there was a doctor on call should any issues have come up.