Hence "had the skills" and "was not". They are not making claims about the present day, they are talking about why the shift happened in the first place and who brought it about.
Good point. When I commented, the sentence I quoted was the final sentence of their comment essentially leaving it more abstract. Though my comment barely interacts with their point anyways.
Sorry. I was typing, got distracted and submitted before I meant to. I thought I had edited pretty quickly, normally I put an edit tag if I think too much time had elapsed.