There have always been top down analysts who look at macro and sectors first and individual securities as an afterthought. Historically, this has been balanced out by bottom up investors who are primarily concerned with specific securities and look at macro and sector forces as it relates to those specific securities.
The balance between the 2 sides created a healthy equilibrium. There were enough macro investors to cause proper price discovery at the sector level. Areas of the economy that were doing well fundamentally would cause the related sectors to rise appropriately. There were also