the golden age of compound time

As I was singing the opening chorus of the St. Matthew Passion a thought occurred to me: why did it go wrong for compound time after the baroque period? Why did later composers use it less, apart from niche markets such as berceuse, siciliano and barcarolle? If Bach could write a powerful, dynamic opening movement to a huge work in 12/8 time, why couldn’t others? (‘Because he was J. S. Bach’ is the obvious answer to this one I suppose). Am I actually totally wrong here and overlooking lots of later examples of substantial movements in compound time? Does it turn up more in e.g. Italian opera because it accommodates feminine endings easily?