Ghost Stories and Modernity

The Christmas season is more or less over, and with it the traditional time for ghost stories.  As a long time fan of the genre, I have often enjoyed MR James and the other classics, but I wonder why these stories have become so identified with the Victorian period?

Their original popularity may have been linked to the expansion of the periodical and book trade at that time, but why do traditional type ghost stories tend not to appear after the 1930s?  The best known examples of the genre _ the Signalman, The Red Room, The Monkey's Paw, some of the works of Algernon Blackwood, the stories of Sheridan Le Fanu, Carnacki the Ghost-Finder _ are all firmly pre war.  MR James is arguably fairly late in the tradition, dying in 1936.

It is not because the stories do not have appeal as both the BBC's 1970s adaptations and the subsequent post 2005 revival indicate.  There continue to be fan sites.

However, there have been very few classic ghost stories written since 1945.  Kingsley Amis' The Green Man is the only memorable post 1945 ghost story I can think of with a completely contemporary setting.  I suppose I should mention Robertson Davies excellent High Spirits collection, but those are more intended as Jeu d'esprit rather than intended to scare.  Susan Hill's The Woman in Black is certainly very good, but noticeably old fashioned.  It even features a horse and trap, which I would have thought would have been quite uncommon by the time of its 1930s setting.

This is quite contrary to the advice given by James himself, who thought that good ghost stories should be as contemporary as possible.  He advised using references to every modern device to make the reader think "This could happen to me".  Yet the only story I can think of with any modern devices is a 1930s EF Benson story that revolves around the use of a telephone.  I wonder why that should be?