ShopTalk: Why no improvement?

[Dave Tutelman]

It is generally agreed that the average handicap has not dropped in the 
past ten years. (I have seen references. All estimate the ten-year change 
between 0 and 0.25 strokes improvement.)

Why do you think this is, given all the improvements in golf club and ball 
technology over the same period?

BTW, this lack of improvement on average also seems to be true for the tour 
professionals. So I can't write it off to a huge influx of novices 
dominating the stats.

DaveT