By the 1970s, many believed the modern era was drawing to a close in art, design, politics, and literature. The social, economic, and environmental awareness of the period caused many to believe the modern aesthetic was no longer relevant in an emerging postindustrial society. People in many fields, including architects, economists, feminists, and even theologians, embraced the term postmodernism to express a climate of cultural change. Maddeningly vague and overused, this term became a byword in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Late modernism and are proffered as alternative terms for late twentieth-century design.