Twas always thus.
"Part of the appeal of COBOL, I think, is that it makes a tantalizing false promise of allowing humans to give instructions to computers in something like human language, expecting the same kind of common-sense interpretation we expect of humans."
My first job was in COBOL, I was still in high school, an intern, I knew nothing about business, and I didn't understand what the code meant. They basically had to undo everything I had done.