It has been a massive thing since the end of WWII. It has existed in many different ways, the biggest incarnation of it is simply 'style'. Clothes are only now meant to be worn for a single season, atleast ideally by the manufacturers. This rapid change in fashion was the reason that people in the 70s, 80s and 90s all look distinctly different. It was an intentional choice by the fashion industry to create more demand for clothing from the same supply. If i walked around in my fathers clothes from when he was the same age as i am now i'd look like a tit. Same happened with cars, each year for the first few models they would change the color. Almost nothing different other than the color, and that ensured that everybody knew you were driving an older model. another good example is apple. Every year the same product with small changes that 'REVOLUTIONIZE' the game, except its generally the same camera, call and browse the internet.