My take on this is the game has become more about team plays and patterns and less about individuals influencing things. Add to that the fact that every team seems to press like crazy these days means there is less time on the ball for individuals to showcase their creative prowess.
You can almost compare modern football to the Fifa video game, where player's individual attributes are not noticeable and everyone seems 'generic'. Whereas football of old used to be like PES, where players had highly noticeable individual attributes (R.Carlos with his shooting, Beckham's stylish free kicks/crossing etc. etc.)