It's harder but we're still finding oil in Oklahoma today. The bar has been raised on startup companies but it can still be done. Every regulation and every rule limits you but yes it can still be done. That's the beauty of living in a free country and having the freedom to have an idea and become an entrepreneur.
Quite a lot of our contemporary culture is actually shot through with a resentment of limits and the passage of time anger at what we can't do fear or even disgust at growing old.