You hit the nail on the head regarding young people, the young man that dials in the the LS and Ford Modular engines/trans on a laptop for us spotted a Quadrajet carburetor on the desk and was fascinated with it. After rolling it around to check from every angle he gave me a puzzled look and asked, "how did it work without any electrical wires?" If they were on the side of the road with carb or distributor problems then THEY would have to call AAA. New bunch riding over the horizon.
My only hope is that a good number of them apply themselves to learn how to be Johnny on the spot for the new, complicated engines and give me hope for the new generation of this hobby..