They keep critising that Office 97 is too big. They compare to the days of when cars were bigger and better. I think things have become bigger and more complex. THe only difference is that the card makers have masked the complexity and optimised the process.
Lets go to the car, there are still big cars, but now they have electronic fueld injection.
Sports cars have turbo chargers. The frames are built often using aluminimum. Cars come with LED based radio and often with CD players. With the average car there is no oil pressure guage, but a little light that blinks like mad when things go wrong. Cars are faster, safer, can do more and more efficient.