Why is it that people were so much more willing and/or able to do stuff like this? Roll yer own relays? Build your own 3 rail track? Build your own outboard motor?
I think it's a combo of things, from cheap throw away items being readily available now to TV and internet filling our free time, ads and media telling us "we can't, only they can", and dont forget the "keeping up with the Kardashians". Or even the " ick factor" our clean and sterile, health oriented, liability finger pointing society helps perpetuate. Having been in a number of different school systems as a youth, I have to say the bulk of the issue lies there. How many schools today teach you to use hand tools to build a birdhouse. You'd have trouble finding it done with a precut kit and Elmers today....after the paperwork clears the Pentagon. I was already a semi-pro when it was covered in third grade at one school, another system 7th grade, and today I don't think its hands on, you just watch, read and test, test , test....schools great but I've met "engineers" that would have trouble with an Erector set but were designing car parts and industrial artisans working at X-mart. Tests mean little IMO. Give me hands on talent anyday; most often, quality follows.
For those with the mindset for enjoying "do it" articles, the reading habits are subject to influence too, eg I bet I'm not the only reader that pokes around the Indestructables site, not to mention this forum too. So maybe its not just diminished acceptance but just focused on things that didn't exist before.
Imagine living rural and only having Sears & Roebuck's type catalogs to buy from, and the wait for payment, processing, and shipping. Spur of the moment impulse buying wasn't run rampent, business was slower paced except for the bigger cities. That timely and encouraging magazine at the little shop was a hobby itself; called self reliance