Waterfall is a straw man, early descriptions by Royce were written specifically to criticize it. Waterfall is mentioned in relation to agile to sing agiles praises. No serious developer will claim to use waterfall.
There are however, a suite of scientific management approaches based on the work of Henry Gantt which have been used, and are used today, that fit under the umbrella of waterfall approaches, such as the program evaluation and review technique, critical path, critical chain, and earned value. These are still in use today, and in fact government contractors are legally required to use earned value for acquisition programs over a certain value.
There are however, a suite of scientific management approaches based on the work of Henry Gantt which have been used, and are used today, that fit under the umbrella of waterfall approaches, such as the program evaluation and review technique, critical path, critical chain, and earned value. These are still in use today, and in fact government contractors are legally required to use earned value for acquisition programs over a certain value.