In fact, when it comes to choosing languages, I think things have changed even more. At justin.tv, we've chosen nearly all of the languages we use because of a particularly good library that each one has (Python, because of Twisted; Ruby because of Rails, etc). The actual features of the languages have been almost irrelevant. We would definitely jump on a Lisp dialect if it happened to have a great library we wanted to use.
I think this is particularly insightful. What you've stated is a raw and pragmatic consideration - what is it that I want to do and what library lets me get that done the fastest?
Coming from justin.tv, this insight may be more start-up perspective oriented than historical reasons for programming language choice.
But I also believe that programming language choice is driven by market or behavioral forces that don't necessarily act in a rational way or lend itself to overly rational analysis.
In fact, when it comes to choosing languages, I think things have changed even more. At justin.tv, we've chosen nearly all of the languages we use because of a particularly good library that each one has (Python, because of Twisted; Ruby because of Rails, etc). The actual features of the languages have been almost irrelevant. We would definitely jump on a Lisp dialect if it happened to have a great library we wanted to use.