Why are more and more sites getting facelifts that completely ruin user experience? What ever happened to good old fashioned design elements like contrast, spacial awareness, things like this?

The page looks like a Word Document now.

Okay, the redesign is much more sensible than the old. It's cleaner, clearer, and IMO much better.

Contrast?! The new design plays much better to contrast. They took out unnecessary visual debris (well, besides the ads, of course).

This is at least one thing TC is has done right recently.