https://nu.federati.net/url/288732 [www quantamagazine org]

This happens because all the incentives go to the big organizations that publish the results, not to the toolmakers whose tools are the foundation of the field. There are other fields with similar issues, and in each of them, as the knowledgeable people who produced the tools and served as the collective memory are retiring or dying, not many are stepping up to continue their work.