TITLE: Why did a famous mathematician say that algebraic topology was dead?
QUESTION [23 upvotes]: I found Novikov said that algebraic topology was dead in the early 1970's in this article.

Segal had been one of Atiyah's first students, working on equivariant K-theory, and 
  then other equivariant generalized cohomology theories. He was a collaborator on the second of the Annals papers on the index theorem. Well known as an algebraic topologist, he arrived in Moscow in the early 1970s to give some lectures and met S. Novikov, who told him, “So you are a topologist? Here we think that algebraic topology is dead.”

I wonder what he meant by it.
Any thoughts?
Note I heard that Thom also said so, but I could find only Japanese Wikipedia article saying he said so, which does not give a reference for that assertion.

REPLY [35 votes]: Novikov was mentioned in the comments as a possible source. Some of his views and memories are published in the article
http://arxiv.org/abs/math-ph/0004012
He calls 1970-80 a "period of decay" for topology, naming the following problems: migration of leaders to other fields; a relaxation of rigor and standards of documentation; the resulting "informational mess" about what had been proved and by whom.