[meaty]

I think there are more kits now. There used to be kits for oscilloscopes, test equipment etc. Now these are black boxes, some of which are a joke.

We had something better than stack exchange - we got an electronics book and a maths book out of the local library and studied it, understood it and developed mental models, rather than expecting a canned answer to plug in somewhere.

And yes I have scars from ferric chloride accidents.

[pyre]

  >  studied it, understood it

So everything studied is instantly understood? People have no need to ask questions? Have mentors?

Sure, some people are looking to plug-and-play answers, but that will always be the case. You can't solve that by telling the kids to 'get off your lawn.'