Comment by cabacon

The story I read (https://andrewdamitio-92271.medium.com/the-decline-of-the-am...) says that there was a shift post-WWII that encouraged building real estate, the accelerated depreciation from the article.

Then as things shifted back to linear depreciation, it made building/running malls much less attractive, and we're seeing that play out over the 20-30 year capital lifecycle you mention.