One of the reason that sort of writing is less used today is because of the increase in the speedc of communication and the increase of rates of change. The use of Mencken's style not only requies a florid, top-heavy and Latinate vocabulary; it also requires a slower-moving rate of new information, in which the crystalized frames of reference last long enough for huge flowery terms like his tomean something in reference. As a simple example, consider how long it took Freud's (and later, Jung's) models to acheive wide-spread circulation such that referring to someone's remarks as "repressed sibling rivalry", just for example, would have any meaning. Since that day (about when Mencken flourished) the introduction of new paradigms and terms into major fields such as psychology and sociology has accelerated dramatically -- and even the acceleration has accelerated. This has made a more flexible, and I think leaner and more basic but adaptable, vocabulary more valuable generally than one with high spires of condensed thought anchored to narrower substance. FWIW. IMNSHO.

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