There was a time.

Do you remember not long ago running into some old guy in the business who had worked for eighteen agencies in eighteen years? In other words, if the agency at which you were working wasn't serving you, you could throw some samples into a bag and find a new job. Because there were hundreds of agencies.

Sadly enough, being a good creative often involves some sort of rage against the machine. Certainly that is a requirement if you are meant to be an agent provateur or a change agent. You are at your agency to shake things up, which involves pissing people off.

But now, there are about twelve agencies left. There's no place to go. So you get conservative and settle in. Don't rock the boat. Don't make waves. They've got you by the short hairs.

From A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad. 1896.

LXII. Terence, this is stupid stuff

‘TERENCE, this is stupid stuff:
You eat your victuals fast enough;
There can’t be much amiss, ’tis clear,
To see the rate you drink your beer.
But oh, good Lord, the verse you make,
It gives a chap the belly-ache.
The cow, the old cow, she is dead;
It sleeps well, the horned head:
We poor lads, ’tis our turn now
To hear such tunes as killed the cow.
Pretty friendship ’tis to rhyme
Your friends to death before their time
Moping melancholy mad:
Come, pipe a tune to dance to, lad.’