Mike,
Don't hype things? In a Utopian world, maybe, but not this one.
Tom,
It would be interesting to try to compare the 1920's to today in terms of actual discussion. Yes, you had a dozen writers or so that would focus on architecture sometimes. But in those days, there were very few response mechanisms.
I don't see more discussion coming any time soon. Call it the USA Today syndrome if you will. Attention spans have dropped a bunch in the last decade. Cite the influence of the current political climate, where politicians don't discuss more....but it seems they discuss louder.
Even on this gca specific discussion site, as I write this, 3 of the current top 10 threads are related to rankings - This one, MN course rankings, and Precedence for more acclaim. Others are about top ranked courses, probably over hyped courses, like PGA West.
If you, Mike or I started an esoteric thread on design philosophy, few would answer. Many would do so by posting examples from a top ranked course.......