Pratchett isn’t new, but the popularity of that quote is.
The new wave of fae is very much disconnected from old myths.
Ummm… We traded that quote on the internet back when I was in highschool. For reference that was 1993-1996. I finished the required credits in 3 years. I’m pretty sure that the fact that a few hundred of us pulled that off in Indiana caused the state to revamp their required courses after we all graduated a year early.
I’m pretty certain this is just a result of you personally not having run into it until recently. There’s nothing new about elven superiority. Hell, WH40K made the Space Elves so damn horny and technologically and psychically advanced that they literally broke the universe, and that shit is also from the 1970s.
There’s a recent increase I’m pretty sure would be quite substantial if you could get the data. Anecdotally, I’ve seen it several times in recent months.