Due to the advent of the "internet age" and the drastically increased number of people on the internet things have changed. When I first got into computers things where very different. The internet was a much smaller place back then. When AOL went big and everybody started to see the usefulness of the net things took a downward spiral. Hacking for most people bacame "how many computers can I damage today with this new tool I downloaded". Alot of people in the scene became dissalutioned with how things were turning out. Because of this they began to hold back more and more from the "mainstream" community.
I must agree with you that the free flow of ideas is the corner stone to the hacking community. Unfourtuanly that is not what the majority of people who actually call themselves hackers are intrested in. They instead are after the dark and arcane art the media keeps hyping. They picture themselves as wizards of the digital age casting mystic spells and controling other peoples computers and lives for that matter. For the most part these types get into hacking then leave within a year because it is not fashionable anymore.
The real community has always been here. The information and ideas they are holding flow as freely as they ever have. You just have to look longer and harder to find real hacking community now.