labels make so few dollars off the sale of albums and singles that recording budgets evaporated. that means money for producers decrease... recording and mixing dollars are lower

so now even when a record is "mixed" in a big room it was usually recorded in a much cheaper room and many times a "home setup"

tape also just sounded different and the pro tools era gets ushered in early 2000s

and one other big BIG thing is mixing in the box. I think of jay z blueprint for being the beginning of the PTE (pro tools era) which was 2001 but everybody was still mixing thru boards. now labels want instant recall (couldn't do that so easily with a board with hardware comps, EQs and verbs). so now it's all in the box. digital has come along way but it still ain't like 2 inch tape mixed down to half