If its true that the ratio of good to bad is pretty much the same, then is it also true that the amount of 'dissing' is the same as well? Or if not, then do we have different expectations of quality? Could it be that we are unreasonably expecting every offering to be a classic? A lot of things are marketed and geared to instant gratification (music, food, TV etc) - so does that carry through to folk music too? In terms of not being willing to devote time to listening unless a quality threshhold is exceeded? And if so then is that bad or good? My own attitude has shifted over the last year from 'if someone's prepared to perform, then I'm prepared to listen' toward 'Oh God - if they can't do better than that then I can't be bothered to listen'. I'm not sure what changed, nor which is the more reasonable attitude.
I hadn't noticed the generation thing - but I'll pay more attention to who is dissing what in future & see what emerges. I'm not sure that the navel-gazing songs are exclusive to any agegroup though (leaving aside the adolescent soul-searching thing that is a natural developmental thing that I'm sure doesn't change from generation to generation!)