.... For those of us who became interested at the time of the
transition from thermionic devices to semiconductors, that
in 1965 a household might have less than 35 active devices
in total (25 in the colour TV, 7 in the transistor radio) and now we
have countless millions mostly in computerisation of one sort
or another.

Is it, I wonder the degree of integration in off-the-shelf
electronics that is the prime cause of the lack of technical
acumen and interest in home construction to be found
these days, especially in the under-educated NuHams
who cannot even tell one end of a resistor from the other?