When did mainstream super hero comics become "story-lite"?

[JackDaw]

From time to time in library or book store I pick up modern DC and Marvel super hero trade paper-backs.

For various reasons I often feel like throwing them through the air.

The biggest single reason is that you tell at a glance they are almost story free. Flick quickly a few pages of a typical modern offering. Big splash page, next page maybe two panels, naff all dialogue. Next page 3 panels, naff all dialogue. Next page...time for a full page splash, no dialogue at all. And so it goes on...I think there's some sort of new union rule that says no page must use more than 5 panels and 20 words of dialogue.

And the art is so static...there's a lot of drawings of good looking men and women. But mostly they don't seem to have any "character", and there's no real sense of movement.

Seriously compare a typical modern super hero comic with the artwork on the Frank Miller/ Klaus Janson Daredevil run. The classic Daredevil run averages out to about 8 panels per page, and the artwork conjures up a marvellous image of exactly how Daredevil moves...especially in the fight scenes. The modern stuff (being generous) maybe has about half the number of panels per page...the story content is way down.

Roughly when did the move take place to having so little story on each page??