While most of the comment is indeed a very detailed and interesting analysis, the last part is unfortunately looking like a "it was better before" nostalgia bias.

I'm currently writing my phd project (after having worked for 10 years in a company) and I'm absolutely stunned by the current easiness to access papers and informations compared to just 10 year ago when I left university.

I concure however that a new and real challenge is now to be able to filter the noise induced by this overwhelming volume of available information. But I don't think nostalgia is an useful tool to reach this goal.

PS: To illustrate https://xkcd.com/1601/

(And I believe there was another comic that it traced it back to Greek philosophers that rejected writing. Thanks to whoever remember the link!)