This video does a great job of explaining why modern programming in general has failed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZgbKrDEzAs

I think OOP specifically derailed programming because of how big it was, how fast it took over and how long it was considered to be the one true programming paradigm. When OOP hit, it hit hard and fast. It wasn't long before colleges were teaching OOP as The One True Way To Program. Every employer required knowledge of OOP before they would interview you. And I mean every employer, from startups to corporate enterprise. And once it took hold, it took people (and me!) 10-20 years to realize the OOP emperor had no clothes on.

I still don't understand why or how it got so big so quickly. All I can figure is that the software industry as a whole pays attention to the wrong people.

Because it led us down a very fulfilling path of inventing interesting abstractions to solve problems, which tickled our mental fancy but led to bloated, sub-optimal solutions.

Unfortunately, it worked ... but eventually the bloat caused projects to hit a wall of unmaintainability. (If it had not worked so well in the medium-term, we would have moved past it much sooner).

Another reason it derailed us is simply the level of buy-in it received from the entire industry. Everyone drank the cool-aid, so thought advancement in more powerful approaches -- such as functional programming, data structure-oriented programming and even data oriented programming -- was neglected.

This (very long) article explains why OO might not be such a good idea as initially believed.

http://www.smashcompany.com/technology/object-oriented-progr...

Another tidbit ... imagine how science might feel if string theory is shown via undeniable objective evidence to be completely wrong. "All that time was wasted...."

But the software world bought in to OOP much more deeply than science has bought into string theory.