I'd venture that what's wrong with starships today is pretty much what's wrong with design in general. Take architecture. It used to be that architects didn't have much leeway with buildings, they were tied to the skill of the builders and the limitations of the building materials. These days an architect can create any form or shape and declare it perfect and then hand it over to the engineers "You solve it !" A perfect design, except that there are cracks in the walls, it leaks and the glass roof is covered in algae because putting in a structure that would allow cleaners easy access to each pane would "ruin a perfect design".
Same with movies, we see this increasing urge to go one more than any previous film, resulting in a rather odd bidding game with visual complexity becoming increasingly worse because increased visual complexity is equated with good design and creativity. That's why the Transformers look like walking junk piles and Turtles look like they just crawled out of the deepest, darkest part of the uncanny valley.
