Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I may recomend the book "Stars' Reach: A Novel of the Deindustrial Future" by one John Michael Greer, maybe we can see this idea from a different perspective. From Greer's point of view, the factors that make today's hardware brittle are not technical, but economic. Corporations have to make electronics at a profit, and at a price point that is accesible to the average working class citizen. This business model wo…
Why is this dead? I've read the blog of the author in the past and found it to be inspiring, or at least interesting, because his short stories did the "what could be different?" thing very well. (edit: wording)
If you like this kind of thing, this other novel of his: Retrotopia, paints a much less dark version of the (not as distant) future. It takes place in the second half of the 21th century, where the USA has split in 7 or so countries after a civil war. So, after Calofornia has turned itself into a 3rd world basketcase, and the Atlantic States (the embodiment of "business as usual" in the novel) is trapped into a dangerous game of chicken against the Republic of Textas (aka "millitary adventurism") to achieve regional hegemony, the Lakeland Republic (aka. the Middle West) is quietly building a sociopolitical infraestructure meant to last.