FWIW, I also have a relative who used to work in A/V.

A lot of it is simply that A/V work used to require a whole lot more people, and more expertise, than it does now. It's one of those professions that's been killed/consolidated by the rise of easy-to-use computer editing tools. Stuff that used to require hours in an editing booth with multiple tapes... is now a few clicks on your computer.