“I’ll call that Decade 1, from 1997 to 2007: the golden era of online UX, when companies were willing to invest in listening to customers in order to serve them better.”
UX started as a way to serve the customer. Now it is a way to steer the customer: dark patterns, engagement metrics and friction placed exactly where it costs you. The discipline didn’t fail. It got hired by the people it was supposed to protect users from.