You can probably blame readability tests, SEO and other related stuff for that. There's a lot of advice online saying that simply written, clearly broken up articles divided into small sections/lists and aimed at a fifth grader's reading level are the way to attract more traffic/readers.

Well maybe that and lowest common denominator marketing. Or the need to pander to social media users, most of whom have at best about five minutes to read an article and not much knowledge of its background.