The problem with the framework is that we run into a steep hill when we must diverge off the path. A good framework gives a great story. Unit tests, integration tests, consistent layers, convenient and powerful ways to access the database without writing a giant SQL generator (if x return "and b.id = c.id" else return "b.name = "%" + name + "%")...
But then, you hit the use case that the framework didn't consider. And suddenly, you either need to extend the framework (never pleasant) or go outside the framework for one portion, which means building all of the tools from the ground up.
Or, more often, ignore testing, hack in the best way you know how, and hope nothing breaks.
The library approach means that you have to build the integration pieces yourself. This is painful, but it means that when you reach a new use case, it isn't as large a jump to keep going.
Each has tradeoffs. There are times when each is superior. Someone like Bob Martin would suggest that you build your system independent of frameworks and treat the web as a client/compatibility layer, and that you build your system of small composable parts so that the framework/library question is a minor one. (This has its own tradeoff with an abhorrent amount of plumbing code that comes along.)
It all comes back to the problem at hand and how we judge the tradeoffs, like most engineering problems.
I don't know what it is about the web, but it's as if we decided all of software architecture didn't mean anything and threw it out. My theory: it's harder to feel coupling in a dynamic language, thus it's just an academic concern!
It isn't that we've decided that software architecture meant nothing; rather, we settled on one architecture that is Good Enough. The View/Controller/Domain paradigm of Rails works for many projects.
A lot of the 'glamour' in the Bay Area is around web apps that 20-somethings use. As a consequence a lot of the headlines and centers of discussion are going to be around languages, platforms and paradigms that reflect that. And, these days, that would be dynamically typed languages, frameworks or framework-like 'libraries' and fad-following (which is where the "rock-star-ninja" meme comes from). I just try to filter the noise as best I can to glean the useful and interesting bits of articles and comments I read.
This sets up a kind of feedback loop: there is an abundant supply of "cheap" labor who can use these languages, which companies love, and so they create more jobs for this labor market to fill, which means more people want to fill it (since there are jobs there).
Edit: 1) I would disagree that python is a "lousy" language; 2) To give some perspective regarding where I come from, the vast majority of my experience is with statically typed languages like C, C++ and Java; I prefer them and in my experience they are at least as easy to develop with as any of the dynamic languages that are popular.
