Personally, I think a lot of the issue is that far too many people have forgotten, never did know, or are too young to know what real UP Steam was like 15-20 or more years ago.

There was no piddling along at 45 or 55 mph, always having at least one diesel (sometimes 2 or 3) doing the work, stopping every 30 miles to "service" the engine, no fan trips, no heavy trains, high maintenance standards that did not include wiping every fly turd off the engine every night, proper maintenance procedures followed, etc.

No braking stuff so it could be blamed on predecessors; no taking years to fix what YOU screwed up, etc.

Ir was much different then.

And far better.