I'm a big proponent of self-reliance myself, it didn't bode well to see a whole generation of folks grow up with "Dial 911" as the mantra and solution to every conflict or minor emergency.
That said, someone else made the fair point here that there are no longer manned lookouts with ground-return telephone sets linking them anymore. This presents the need for citizens to use a cell phone to report smokes coming up; I do this frequently in fire season. Too, there's almost zero law enforcement presence on the forest at odd hours, let alone how few USFS bodies come up during daylight hours in fair weather.
Personally, I could do without the disruption of my wilderness experience from helicopter overflights performing extractions of hikers who have merely sprained an ankle. But because the hiker happened to have a cell phone and because there are people willing donate their helicopter & jet fuel to the Sheriff's SAR team (and because gov't mule skinners are about as rare as buggy whips nowadays) this has become standard operating procedure now.
While it might have been true in the not-so-distant past that cell phones were somewhat more reliable, using a cell phone to get you out of a fix in the backcountry always been a sketchy plan.
Maybe most insidious of all is that because of the civil liability issues, gov't agencies no longer act with much restraint (for instance in the recent turned-ankle example).
This turns the Wilderness Act on it's head and sometimes gives the Ventana Wilderness the feel of a rambling and unruly urban park.
