A key issue with mainframes is that the cohort of supporting programmers is dwindling. While normally this wouldn't be a problem in that a falling supply of programmers would be offset by an increasing amount of salary those causing a rising supply of programmers via the law of supply and demand, I'm not sure this is really happening for mainframes. While they still form critical infrastructure for many businesses, the simple fact is there isn't an adequate number of young programmers coming up along to keep the support population populated. Why is this? What makes mainframes unattractive to young programmers?