I just went through an job hunt. I've been in tech for nearly two decades, and tech hiring has gotten definitively worse. It was never good to begin with, but it has become more painful from a candidate's perspective.

Employers are so focused on the well shared "the worst hire is a bad hire!" that they implement obtuse and ineffective hoops candidates must jump through in attempt to weed out "bad" candidates. This results in hiring those who survive the process, not those that will do the best work.