I agree the authoring tools were excellent. I think it goes beyond Flash though. I have this book from 2008 on Flash web designs and they're so cool, there's s

I agree the authoring tools were excellent. I think it goes beyond Flash though. I have this book from 2008 on Flash web designs and they're so cool, there's so much detail and love put into them. Then they all became flat and soulless. Same with skeumorphism. I bought yesterday two iPhone 4's, one with the original iOS and one that had been "upgraded" to the flat laggy version with all the detail, all the love, all the joy sucked out of it. The exact same thing happened across the entire digital landscape, more or less simultaneously.