Thanks, glad you got something out of the comment.
You have a point that, ironically, the success of Licklider's vision may have changed the nature of collaboration for the worse in some ways. It's been a huge net positive, in that humanity as a whole is more productive, but there are things that have been lost.
(Or maybe another way to look at it is that Licklider/Engelbart's vision has been watered down, and you could solve these communication problems with better software design.)
Another example I recall is that Rob Pike said that Bell Labs was a wonderful environment because everyone had to physically sit in the same room, huddled around big shared computers. There is a natural exchange of ideas in that environment, which leads to big research breakthroughs. When Ethernet and personal workstations came around, suddenly you could sit at your desk and close the door and put your headphones on.
I personally noticed that irony at my own job. Often people would be talking more to people in a remote office than the person sitting next to them. And sometimes people would chat electronically with someone in their own office -- e.g. if they didn't want to take off your headphones or disturb other officemates!
I also wonder what a new model for funding basic research looks like. It seems like YCombinator would be a logical entity to fund such research, but as far as I can tell, it was a failed experiment.
And I think there is some danger in longing for the "golden age". I was reminded in reading the "Dream Machine" that a lot of it was driven by fear of the Soviets (Sputnik, etc.). And I also wonder if what made it work back then is no longer present, for better or worse.