Is music quality moving away from the "audiophile"

Per Synthfreek, just to clarify, I was referring to data compression.
Also, I'm in complete agreement with Bongofury.
And, maybe, Metralla is right about CDs. I dunno. I've never expected much from them to begin with and have always listened mainly to vinyl.
Still, the very first CDs really did suck! They were not even listenable. I mean, c'mon!

Compression is the future. It's potential, unlimited. This is unavoidable and, ultimately, not incompatible with musicality. Early CDs sucked. But, technology improves. . .
It is no different with compression. Engineers look forwards, not backwards. It is up to us "audiophiles" to provide them with direction.
It is useless to attempt to thwart them, or bemoan what was.
For instance, when John Atkinson says MP3 files cannot be of "audiophile quality" that just means he hasn't heard them played on a system optimized for them. Like mine. Btw, I listen to old mono vinyl Lps and MP3s off my hard drive--exclusively. The compact disc with its uncompressed files is a dead format. It's time to adjust.

Yes. Sound engineers are quite adept at "gumming up" the sound with "compression and over-amplification and fake digital reverb and all the other favorite tricks".
Still, while compression certainly does degrade the sonic quality of what is put down on vinyl, and of the music we listen to live in the analog world in which we actually live, compression of digital files can be compensated for during the decoding of them. The technology/software just has not fully arrived there, yet. The current software isn't "smart" enough.
On another note, many young people, today, DO care about sound quality. Teens, like my daughter, are seeking out turntables and vinyl pressings more and more because "they just sound better". While record companies' CD sales are declining, their LP sales are increasing. Just look at the increase in bands coming out with their latest recordings on the LP format.
I went into a Compusa a couple years back inquiring about the best way to get the music off my LPs on to my hard drive. The young man behind the counter said, "Why would you want to do that when records sound so much better?"
And, the other day, my daughter said to me, "Dad, I am getting your Bob Dylan collection when you're dead, right?"