[sk11001]

> When did software design / engineering change so much?

We need to do more complex things, and if you want to do these things efficiently without reinventing things from scratch, you need to rely on different tooling and work on various level of abstraction.

> Are things really getting better

No but they aren't getting worse either, they're just different (except for the parts that aren't).

> or is computing power allowing the industry to duck tape a billion things together instead of writing in low level languages and using standard packages and compilers?

Lower level languages aren't better than higher level languages, they serve a different purpose. As a professional, you need to pick the right tools to do your job.