I don't believe story telling is becoming stale, actually. See, it's the bane of every generation to think its getting worse off than the previous one. Those 20th century genuises thought they were going stale too.
Maybe fiction really is going stale then, century by century. But given the numbers of dope writers I've read both in this century and the last, I seriously doubt it.
Brilliant write-up, though.
Cheers,
Ras.