It's interesting that the vast majority of us would have seen all those films and never noticed... I get the feeling that now every time I watch a recent movie I'm going to be thinking of this post.
These colors are used because they work, and they project a certain effect on your images. Blaming this on the advent of computers is disingenuous - photographers have been shooting at Golden Hour for generations to capture the contrasty orangeness since God knows when.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCandless_Method#McCandless_Me...
This is hardly a new digital phenomenon, it's done because it works. The digital editors are emulating what's been done using colored light for 90 years.
Art goes through phases - maybe there was that guy back during the Renaissance complaining about how all the sculptures looked the same, etc etc. This is simply the way art goes.
It's like AutoTune in music: people have always tried to sing in tune, but now they can sing even more in tune, and so current pop music has almost lost the naturalism and emotional effects produced by subtle variance in pitch.
We've certainly lost a lot of aesthetics as art styles changed over time - when's the last time you saw a good tapestry? I don't see this as particularly bad, though, it's simply "the way it is" in art. Periodically we will exchange one thing for another, and life goes on.
I agree it can become a bit silly when lots of different singers start sounding alike, but when done well it can really work and have definite effect.
It's from the Terran Academy in StarCraft, and I've heard it in other places but don't know the name of it.
Just a little anecdotal evidence of my experience on this fascinating subject. Perception, attention and information are very interesting facets of psychology!