"Put it in perspective and you realize the web's "peak" according to this graph was when most people were using 56k modems."

I think this is precisely the point: traditional, browser-based Web (text-based, asymmetrical...) is designed to work perfectly with low-bandwidth connections. With the advent of broadband, it becomes obsolete and is to be superseded by modern technologies which better utilize this type of connections.

Of course, Web is not dead by any means; but Wired is in the business of selling tech-related sensations.