I have noticed this trend for a long time also, and well before this article was first written. It seems to go in waves though I'll cautiously say that it seems to have gotten somewhat better in recent years. I remember a time in the mid-2010s when these kinds of stories would disappear almost instantaneously. Now some of these articles and topics get a good number of upvotes and occasionally even substantive dialogue.
That said, the comments sections on these articles do tend to devolve pretty quickly.
Just be aware that if you do that, you're signing up to see the worst of what the internet has to offer HN—alongside a lot of other stuff that isn't as bad. We never delete things outright, unless the author asks us to, so that setting is basically x-ray glasses into everything.
>>10877423 (Jan 2016 - maybe before we figured out how to treat the dreaded title fever, which drives men mad like mosquitoes in the old northwest)
>>7611005 (April 2014 - what a time warp - remember when anything anti-Elon would get flamed?)
>>8477279 (Oct 2014 - thank god I changed it back or lord knows how bad it couldve gotten)
>>14248635 (May 2017 - everyone wants more monthly threads until the front page fills up with them, guess how you'd like that now)
>>11608112 (May 2016 - fair play for airbnb? how dare i?)
>>10564079 (Nov 2015 - ugh. hn must have gotten better about religious flamewar because that one made me cringe)
>>17780480 (Aug 2018 - i probably wouldn't do that now - but please come back, pvg)
>>8759235 (Dec 2014 - i'm sorry don't hit me!)
>>13752227 (Feb 2017 - oho! we can detach things!)
>>8809021 (Dec 2014 - i have sweeter ways of making the exact same point now)