Since 1990 the job of the carrier has been to project power agaonst 3rd world and developing world countries, not hightly militirised 1st world ones.
It's true that missile technology of the top industrial nations is so adbundant and advanced a carrier fleet would have little defence, the Chinese have new air to sea missile that travels so fast it is unstoppable by any ship defence system in the world, and powerful enough to pretty much vaporise a carrier on impact.
However for the forseable future there isn't going to be any conflict between major industrial nations, so the carrier will most likely have one generation left, until these super advanced missiles become everyday in the developing world.
Edited by Pytheus - 31-Mar-2011 at 06:16