The swing to fantasy from hard SF reflects publisher preferences. Have you noticed how much fantasy has a woman as a lead character, often with non-traditional PC lifestyle choices?
There is good SF out there but you have to find it in self-published books now, or, if the author is lucky, under the Baen imprint.
“woman as a lead character, often with non-traditional PC lifestyle choices”
Spiritual Babylon mother of Harlots....”her” influence is infiltrating everywhere...
It always cracks me up to see modern fantasy and science fiction movies where petite women take on and beat male attackers in hand to hand combat. There are men strong enough to crack skulls and knock other men out with single punches, and men who can grapple so hard as to break ribs. Yet, I’m supposed to believe that training can give a 120 lb woman a fighting chance (hand to hand) against a guy twice her mass. That really is fantasy.