I wrote a cynical take on "how it happened" at the time: https://joshua.hu/losing-sight-vision-mission-of-your-role

I think it comes from the divorce of what people are hired to do versus what their work actually contributes to. I also remember the countless cloudflare turnstiles that I've had to get through one way or another on airlines' websites which reset every minute (looking at you, airserbia, for being the worst).