Tony:
I don't know how anyone could measure this.
Today golf architecture is all over the map. There are so many people doing so many different things that I don't think you could call any trend representative of the whole. There is some great work being done and there is some crap work being done (despite what several people have said about the standard being much higher now than before, there is still a lot of expensive crap out there).
There was probably a lot of crap in the other "Golden Age" too, but it's all fixed or gone now, so it's hard to give a completely accurate assessment of that era, either.
As for your questions, though, most of them favor the older stuff. Golf is certainly more formulaic now, less sporting, less natural, and more costly to play.