I think it's 3rd party libraries/tools/SaaS, all sitting on top of a much more complicated stack, causing most of the problems. They provided enough of a boost to productivity that you can't justify avoiding them, but mean you swap thinking about and fixing real problems for googling obscure broken shit in these almost-always-terrible libraries et c.
It's the difference between 8 hours, 1 of which is wrestling with dumb broken crap, and 4 hours, 3.5 of which is wrestling with dumb broken crap. The latter is way less fun, very demoralizing, and more mentally draining IMO. But it's almost all one gets to do these days, because you do get done faster with them. A blessing (to productivity) and a curse (to fulfillment/happiness as a developer)
It's the difference between 8 hours, 1 of which is wrestling with dumb broken crap, and 4 hours, 3.5 of which is wrestling with dumb broken crap. The latter is way less fun, very demoralizing, and more mentally draining IMO. But it's almost all one gets to do these days, because you do get done faster with them. A blessing (to productivity) and a curse (to fulfillment/happiness as a developer)
[EDIT] add missing word