Well, note that my conclusion is largely that we have not, in fact, decreased the number of hackers, nor their proportion within the general population—just their proportion within the computer-using population, and that only by adding a large number of non-hackers to that population. I'm skeptical that we can ever increase the proportion of the population that has the hacker mindset much higher than it is without some kind of overall cultural shift (something that's beyond our power to affect).

But it's also unquestionably true that it's much easier to be a "hacker", in the sense we think of from the 1960s-80s, in a time and field where the hardware and software is simpler, more open, and less obfuscated. As such, I think it's probably not helpful to long for those bygone days—especially the "simpler" part—which we are clearly never getting back until and unless we make a breakthrough that is just as revolutionary as the transistor and the microchip were (and I'm skeptical as to whether that's possible, both in terms of what physics allow ever, and in terms of the shape of the corporate landscape now and for the foreseeable future). Honestly, a lot of the things that were possible back then, a lot of the incentive to get into hacking, was stuff that's actually hugely dangerous or invasive. Instead, I think it's better to focus on what we can do to improve the latter two parts of that equation: more open, less obfuscated.

Personally, I would say that the way toward that is pushing for, creating, and working on more open protocols and open standards, and insisting that those be used to enable more interoperability in place of proprietary formats and integration only with other software and hardware from the same company.

Hacking isn't about crime. It's about exploration. There are lots of people showing "the youths" how interesting it is to break a lock or go around it. Basically, any time you can make a system do something fun, helpful, or interesting that it wasn't intended to do, that's hacking. You can be 100% law abiding with no fear of punishment and still get the full experience.