I can't buy into this generational conflict suggesting that cruisers starting now know less or that having access to technology "dumbs one down" or even that statement that modern boats are not built as well as the old boats of the seventies.
I've been around sailing, cruising and
living aboard as long as most or longer and I've always been aware of the variety in the quality of boats and the skills of their owners. I don't believe that there are "good old days" for the boats or their crew. Since my first days sailing in the 1950's I've seen sailboats and sailors that I've admired and those less able. I've had my own times of pride and bad choices.
I think the crusty old salts who remember the good old days have forgotten their idiots friends and their own bad days or that cedar planked
Tahiti Ketch that they turned down, but their buddy left wrecked when it fell apart on a calm day among the rocks!