The reality is that the architectual establishment is largely responsible for destroying the aesthetic inheritance in the west. Kunstler lays this out for the layman in "Geography of Nowhere".
It was a confluence of events: the architectual establishments hatred of traditionalism and regional forms, combined with the corporate elites love of the inexpensive, anti-skilled labor, massed man internationalist style.
As the article mentions, we will continue to cycle around in various modernisms that reject one another in a simulacrum of progress while, to the layman, offering nothing of aesthetic merit. What will not be considered, until after the revolution, is a return to the forms that created the towns and cities we all love.
Meanwhile, any remaining charming old neighborhoods are bid to the moon, and Christopher Alexander is read mostly by software designers.