architecture has a long history, of course. even if we start from since drafting became standard practice, recent advances like 3d modeling (due to computers) and analyses (satisfying/resolving building code constraints, structural forces, etc) are quantum leaps. in programming, perhaps the type systems (static) and debugger (post-production) gives a similar feeling but not quite. these two aside, the concerns of a c programmer today largely overlaps with those of dennis ritchie & brian kernighan.
It goes beyond computing. The way that humans simplify systems is to treat components as black boxes, even though lots of internal details are actually coupled together. When you see a codebase that does this, you think "ewww separation of concerns".
But the real world violates this all the time. You want to buy a car. Some company you've never heard of in China makes the chips that detect whether or not your windshield wiper fluid reservoir has fluid. A shipment to the car manufacturer is ready to go out. But, there are no shipping containers. Until the windshield wiper sensor chips arrive, the car factory can't make any cars, and don't have room to unpack the shipping containers with unneeded parts that are piled up outside. So there is no container that can go back to China to bring the chips to the factory. While all that is worked out, SV venture capitalists print some money to give to a used car startup, making it super easy to get the best price on your used car. With no new cars available and flashy discounts to get the market kickstarted, the used car market shoots up, meaning that even though you want a new $60,000 electric car, all you can do is buy a used 1988 Yugo for $150,000. You walk to work, even though you have the money for the car you want.
If it's software, this is what we call a pageable event and the postmortem whines about "separation of concerns". But in the real world... well, we don't have those. We LOVE thinking we do, but when shit blows up, it's clear that we don't. So are we really surprised that software works the same way? It's how the Universe works, not bad architecture. The Universe has terrible architecture. Adjust some of those constants and try again!
