Well, we also don't have the distance to know what works will last. Orwell's work has turned out to be prophetic and, fifty years and more later, people still read it. There is a sheer volume of texts being cranked out in the last few decades that it's impossible to separate wheat from chaff and know what will last.

Also, well, yes, there don't seem to be writers capable of keeping people's attention. The good political writers are all writing non-fiction. So you ought to get to that novel and write something with a spark in this dreary world. :p