> overall, the young copy the elders and contend hotly with them in words and in deeds, while the elders, lowering themselves to the level of the young, sate themselves with pleasantries and wit, mimicking the young in order not to look unpleasant and despotic.

"Socrates", in Plato's Republic

None of us are immune to cycles in fashion, and the need to differentiate ourselves and our work from what came before, even if what came before was pretty much a solved problem.

Maybe it's humanity's way of escaping local minima, or maybe it's an endless curse which every generation must bemoan.