It's a completely different time and era, that's for sure. The DTV films of Willis, Cage, and Cusack still have the looks of decent sized budgets behind them, but yes, they're a long ways from the big-budget blockbuster days of the '90's. Willis in particular just doesn't even care anymore... I've heard he's on set for 1-2 days.
Regarding the lower-level guys, it seems to be lower-rent productions; some of the productions have the feel of being filmed over the course of a single weekend, edited and mixed over the next weekend, and then released within a few months just to write off for taxes (of course, I'm not an expert as to how this goes down
).
Regardless, it's just a sign of the era we're living in. Money talks, and it is what's driving the decisions of everyone on that list. Each role is a paycheck, nothing more.