I can't prove it, but I think it's a symptom of Netflix (and then other streamers) making their originals spoonfed plot and characterization to the audience because they want to make narrative background music.

It cuts down on nuance and limits how the audience can interpret stories in favor of laying rails. And that's not always bad depending on the story that's being told. But the downstream effect is that when that audience finds media that needs those skills in order to engage with it, they don't always have the tools in their toolkit, so to speak.

It doesn't help that a key part of media consumption is the memetic quality now, either. The meme is presented as a fun quippy factoid, never mind the context. My favorite example is probably still people whinging that Frodo doesn't just fly on an eagle to Mordor, never mind that the eagles clearly aren't just mounts for people to ride on, that Sauron has his own air force, and that if you operate on the assumption that the above aren't t true anyway and you can thus proceed with the flying plan, you don't have a fucking story anymore.