Is it me or are people getting utterly obsessed with links again?

Is it me or are people getting utterly obsessed with links again. Is it because the content marketing rush flooded sites with absolute dilution in a lot of cases, I wonder - and people are fumbling around for other solutions and to save their disorganised piles of non-topical nonsense? Seeing posts which say top ways to get links (survey results) - guest posts, directories, etc. Jeez. What year is it?