> >and mass marketing aligned. Standards for construction as well as standards
>  >for tradesmen began to lower as the availability of cheaper (litteraly)
>  >materials and systems increased. <

We must remember when this began to occur, which was as soon as possible. The
first saw mill in the country was set up here in southern Maine in the 1620.
Immediately (or at least within a few decades) carpenters began using the
"cheaper" mill-sawn boards for everything they could including plaster lath.
For the first time in history people lived in houses completely surrounded
(floors, walls and ceilings) with "cheap" machine-produced building materials.

John