And that, my friend, is perhaps more an indication of your state of mind than it is fact.
I wish you better times.
Indeed, it is a true refelction of my state of mind. I'd go further, though, and say that I really do believe that it has lost its place in the world.
Was a time that it took some applied learning, a modicum of skill and, to shine, talent. Being an accepted photographer, as compared with somebody who owned a box Brownie and was perfectly satisfied with the little prints from the chemist's, was something slightly special - it allowed one to stand a half-step ahead of the crowd, or at least, if not ahead, to one side. Today that no longer exists. There is no level of glory in making a photograph anymore because even the village idiot - armed with a primitive smart phone, can make a photograph. I'd go further, and state that from the stuff that I see around me, others from the same village makes better snaps with their cellphones than when they buy an expensive camera and climbs aboard their newly-minted pretensions.
As I have mentioned before, the great imaginations and eyes that once walked the darkrooms, studios and locations are now behind cameras and in editing suites in the filming industry. That's the final depository of great photographic imagination. All else is cliché - done well - or crap.
And to make it all worse, I do believe that I can smell that I have burned the friggin' soup taking time out of the kitchen to write this.