I think HN still has an intelligent userbase, but they're smart within their own domain (software engineering); when it gets into Economics I think the community falls completely flat.

I've seen a recurring theme on HN forums, specifically related to Finance, where there is this ingrained hatred. I believe most of this stems from early-stage software engineers feeling "cheated" out of equity in companies and - in turn - think all finance is evil (when in reality they just were naive about how finance & equity actually works).