Maybe there is a name for this phenomenon, but it feels like when we add so much productivity via layers of abstraction, even more person-effort gets allocated to the higher levels of abstraction. Because 1. that's where people are most productive / happy / compensated / recognized / safe 2. businesses can confidently project return on investment

How many engineers get to work on a part of the stack that has some room for fundamental breakthroughs or new paradigms? The total number has maybe grown in the last 50 years, but not the proportion?

It's hard to justify an engine swap once there's so much investment riding on the old one, so just not a lot of people are researching how to make that new OS.

That is until a Tesla comes around and shows the market what could be better/faster/cheaper.