The hacker ethos didn't change. The software developer gold rush happened, bringing in an influx of people who are only coding for the big paycheck corporations provide, and that watered down who was considered a "hacker". There's no interest among them in exploring what one can do with computers, no interest in code elegance (the hallmark of the old-school hackers), and certainly no interest in any ethos other than "Greed is good".
This is 100% exactly what happened. Being a hacker was the un-sexy thing, done out of passion. Then people realized it paid a ton of money and now we have... whatever mess it is we have today.
