Well of course it is fickle...however certain styles are timeless, especially those that are derivative of the heritage of Western civilization. I am not an architecture student however I have taken classes in architecture at Tulane University, and I continue to be appalled by the intellectual snobbery of the modernist architectural thought that is being taught.
There are at least certain elements of Western architecture that remains desireable for many people (and arent constrained to historicism or modernism) but they do find trends in the cartoonish bad houses that so many people inhabit today. And even then with many people give them a traditional house or offer them something in the modernist movement, a majority will choose the traditional structure.
As for developers, slash and burn...has less to do with what style something is built in and more to do with the nature (scumbags) of development. Sprawl is over at least for now...and I think the majority of development will be brownfield, and I think we will see a lot more conflicts on good and bad architectural styles.
You can do good modernism, and you can do a bad, cheap modernism...and give a developer the chance to do so and you will find yourself living in a crumbling mud hut.
Enough rambling...it's too cold in here.
