I can't help but feel that this is by design by VCs. Rip through younger talent and see what shakes out. You can polish the turd later. You're not looking for beautiful gemstones in most startups. You're just mostly throwing things against the wall to see what sticks, and it's later generations of devs who come in and deal with the tech debt.

Jokes on them, though, my mortgage is almost paid off, so I can work for less than I was. I'm the old guy working with all the young people at the startup. I can almost feel their eyes rolling into the back of their heads when I start going on about "back in the 90s"...