Not quite true, though indeed getting upvotes seems not to be as easy as it once was. I still get an upvote on some of my relatively recent answers once in a couple months, although it depends on the answer.

The quick way to accumulate reputation is through bounties. However, it's very much a lottery: bountied questions are often about ultra-specialised niche topics. You may need to hunt for a long time to find something you actually know something about.