In his second class for Torah in Motion on Rabbi Ben Zion Uziel, Dr. Marc B. Shapiro says:
There was a time 30 years ago when, if you had a question for Reb Moshe Feinstein, the greatest posek of the day, you could call him up on the phone. His number was in the phone book. You could go to the door and ring his doorbell and he would answer it. Things are very different today. You can’t go in and see Rabbi Elyashiv or Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. They are very much like senators and governors. They are surrounded by handlers who take them places and provide protection. It’s a new phenomenon. The rabbis of the past were rabbis of communities and they had to answer the poor woman who came in with a chicken.
Now we have certain great sages who are protected from the people and they have no involvement with the average lay person. Obviously that is going to have an impact on their halachic (Jewish law) decisions.
