Ever been to a modern, open plan, co-working space? The only people you see actually getting work done are wearing headphones to...drown out the other people...to drown out the inane music someone thought needed to be played...to give the illusion of walls.
The wall illusion is reenforced by the signs around showing the relationship of a person's headphone wearing to their interruption level.
The unspoken problem are the studies that show that innovative thought requires quiet.
When science is applied to the study of knowledge work, you get IBM's Santa Theresa Labs https://wiki.c2.com/?SantaTeresaLaboratory
Without science, you get cubicles and open office plans.