I did some work for a writer who worked on many successful movies since the 70’s. He is having a hard time finding work now and was complaining about DVD piracy and studios not hiring older writers anymore. I felt a bit bad for him, but I’m sure he wasn’t very wise with most of the money he made.
It’s always been about the distribution - the ability of creators to get the content to those who would read/see/hear it - more so than creative skills.
Hollywood, Big Newspaper, Networks, Magazines - they all thought they were superior writers and artists.
They ain’t and they never were.
All they ever had was the ability to control how much and when that content was distributed to the customer.
It’s the same with political punditry. Here at FRee Republic there are hundreds of folks who can write better and more incisive political commentary than those who appear on the Sunday talk shows.
We were able to get ACADEMY AWARD winning photographers, sound people, etc. on our little independent film because they need work-—and because they liked the project.