Ah, I see what you're getting at.
Idealogically, some say our Western society is in the throes of postmodernism, which is largely a reaction to modernism. So, rather than spending energy looking for news ways of doing things, we focus mainly on not doing things the way they were done during the modern era. That's a stereotype, of course, but I think it does a fairly accurate job summarizing our cultural/artistic expressions over the past 30 - 40 years. What does this look like? Well, since the modern era was characterized by reason and logic, the postmodern era is characterized by de-emphasizing reason and logic. In music, we saw the advent of atonal music and the gradual displacement of traditional tonalities. Chaos and randomness began to be favored over form and beauty—outflows of logic.
This isn't to say that any of this is somehow wrong or worse, however. It simply is the way things are.
Personally, I think it's rather sad that atonality and tonality need be viewed as the products of opposing idealogies. Why should one be praised and the other devalued? Why should composers of serial or 12-tone music (i.e., atonal) be hailed as "innovative and cutting-edge," while composers of traditional diatonic harmonies be criticized as "commonplace and close-minded?" My goal as a composer is to blend these two.
And maybe that's what will define our era: a melding of old and new. In any case, I do agree with you @Jean Szulc that we seem to be living off the ashes of the past, even if our goal is to wipe those ashes from our memory.
Edit: the goal of postmodernism is to obliterate the ashes of modernism. I wasn't insinuating that's what we should be doing, but rather that's what society is doing.