The title of this post is an excerpt (from an excerpt) of a quote by Masanobu Fukuoka. Sometimes the best solutions involve removing some of the previous innovations.
You have to be over 50 to have run in the era before heavily cushioned running shoes; they came in about the time that the running boom took off. Comparing injury rates before 1975 and after requires that one take many factors into account, including body types and running surfaces. Most of us are running along asphalt and concrete, not east African savannah.