I have to say my last trip to the US (Austin this spring) in spite of the ESTA thing was the easiest ever. I didn't even have to fill a paper form or answer dumb questions - just fingerprints and in.

You used to have to fill out in writing if you'd ever been affiliated to a communist party or done, drugs, where are you staying, how long, and be interrogated. I almost got deported a couple of times for saying I hadn't figured which hotel or how long I was staying.