The infrastructure has been changed to ensure the student is successful. It's analogous to the "everybody gets to make the team/gets to play" attitude that has replaced "the survival of the fittest" mindset in our culture.
It doesn't guarantee that a student is successful, but a student who has more "will" than "skill" has a greater support structure to help him be successful. Also, it's more difficult to get in today than it was 5 years ago, so you see fewer students with a "skill" problem.
But, with a few exceptions (e.g. BSBA no longer requires full calculus), Tech is as difficult as it ever was.