This reminds me of one of those documentaries where they show some ridiculous mechanical contraption in a scene, and the narrator says, "Before the technology became extinct, it had become vastly more complex and sophisticated, but alas, it's days were numbered..."
A lot of the time, the complexity is the main reason something goes bye bye; something just as sophisticated comes along, but is far less complex. Making it less prone to failure/easier to use/implement.