Hi Harold,
I think this is partly because the things that were hard to do then are still hard to do now. Oh, sure, computers are faster and can hold more data, but like you said, it's about mental models and power structures. Computers still aren't very good at tellng stories; simulations are still expensive to build; and more data is just more data, not more knowledge.

And like Tom points out, if companies get rewarded simply for purchasing a system and declaring themselves innovators, the boring work of getting real human beings to do something different will never get done.