Yea I think I agree with what you said, especially that the increased communication helped this (I remember when I started programming I didn't have access to internet and once I actually got it it was a complete game changer in terms of learning).

And don't get me wrong I don't think what we have today is anywhere near perfect or even good, frameworks are often more trouble than worth but at least frameworks showed people that <?php mysql_query("select * from foo where id='" . $_GET["id"] . "'") ?> isn't the only way to write code - I do not want to go back to those days.