Photoquotes has recently put up Berenice Abbott’s 1951 essay, “Photography at the Crossroads.” Mentioned twice already here on Photorant, it’s the same essay reprinted in The Education of a Photographer (which is now also indexed on Google books).

So you needn’t take my word for it:

"The stale vogue of drowning in technique and ignoring content adds to the pestilence and has become, for many, part of today's general hysteria..."