I think it's a well established notion that games today are much less difficult than they were in the past. There are some exceptions like Demon Souls, but in general most popular games require fewer attempts to reach a goal than they did in the past.

For younger gamers this is especially true for control purposes alone, since games today offer a lot smoother interface and younger gamers may not be used to the punishing controls of some older games. Even for a child of the 8 and 16 bit eras like myself, I still find newer games requiring less attempts to get through and are in general only a mild challenge. Don't get me wrong, I prefer it this way since I'm more interested in the experience than the challenge. If I wanted a challenge I'd just do more work.

Why do you think this is? Why are games easier than they used to be? Is there a greater focus on the overall experience now that so many additional tools are at developers' disposal?