It is harder because of both, and the fact that so much of the more content is lower quality. In the past it was not just that you could build up an understanding of a subject but often that understanding came from high quality experts on the subject. Nowadays the understanding of a subject you can build up often comes from a content mill or something providing a lower quality overview of the subject.

Searches you do now on basically any subject you are not an expert in already give you the same subject matter level of expertise you can expect from a 5 minute segment on the nightly news, whereas before you could expect at least the quality of a 30 minute show hosted by James Burke.