Most of what we call “data science” is repackaged “data mining” — a skill that goes easily back to the mid-90s. Sure, open source tooling makes it all a lot more accessible today; but IBM / Oracle / etc. have offered similar packages (at MUCH higher price points, of course) for decades.
I think once the hype calmed down, people started to realize that it was largely the same old shit in a much cheaper package — evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Ultimately I think the hype cycle was driven by Moore’s Law more than anything; the fact you could run this type of analysis in a manageable amount of time without needing a huge IBM mainframe was the real innovation.
I think once the hype calmed down, people started to realize that it was largely the same old shit in a much cheaper package — evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Ultimately I think the hype cycle was driven by Moore’s Law more than anything; the fact you could run this type of analysis in a manageable amount of time without needing a huge IBM mainframe was the real innovation.