[e12e]

I'm not sure it's quite so clear cut, don't forget about http://vpri.org/ for example. Or the OLTP (one laptop per child) with assorted projects. Or the work on various unikernels on top of xen (like mirageos). Or Minix3. Or livelykernel (http://www.lively-kernel.org/).

Or perhaps even Dragonfly BSD.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, some of the links above might even support your point -- I'm just not sure we've "stopped" with big, complete systems -- but the field as a whole has gotten much bigger -- and there's only so much hype to go around...