Change became the norm around 1800 in the US. 1800-1900 saw absolutely spectacular changes in the US, in the way people work and live, at all levels of society, and that continued on unabated after 1900.
Sure but the modern school system was designed to produce workers for the industrial age. The information age accelerated change to the point where the stuff that was current while you were in college was already obsolete by the time you graduated (and since you were being trained on the previous generation of tech you were two steps behind).
Before 1970 a typesetter learned to work with the flaws in his/her typefaces. After 1980 a typesetter complained and the got fixed. After 1990 the typesetter fixed them him/her self.
