I would agree that in some respects it's being dumbed down. When I were a lad I was taught the rules which largely said what I had to achieve and sometimes how to do it. The balance is changing and more and more rules now say how I have to do things and take away my flexibility and creativity is doing the job. Gone are the days where many of the rules included words like 'when necessary' or 'if appropriate'.
This seems to be being inculcated from day one because I see controllers coming out of initial training with the view that there is one way - and just one way - that everything must be handled.
Or maybe I'm just getting old.....
As to why it's happening, I don't think it's to do with any job frenzy but (in the UK anyway) a reaction to corporate law and more and more influence in the rules from Europe, and in the latter instance it often seems that when the 'new' rules are developed they put all of the current rules in a pot and then take the worst from the whole region and then make them mandatory.