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A precondition of intellectual progress is that each generation can build on the foundation laid down by its predecessors, and thereby reach new heights. Without a durable record of knowledge, we would be stuck re-inventing the rudiments over and over, doomed to never reach any degree of sophistication exceeding that which can be developed by a single human mind over the course of a single lifetime.
In the 20th century, culturally significant written works (those that were read, cited, and referenced by large numbers of people), were typically printed, creating a large number of durable copies. Those printed copies were then distributed to multiple locations: book stores and public libraries, and from there to personal libraries.
Contrast that to the early 21st century, when many written works are published exclusively on the World Wide Web. And the thing about the web is, it's quite possible to serve a web page for many people to read, from a single copy residing on single hard-drive in a single location, without ever creating and distributing redundant durable copies. So people just don't. And sooner rather than later, the single-point-of-failure fails, and all the hyperlinks pointing to it rot.