Hypothesis regarding recent DDoS attacks

Something occured to me recently:

As you know, there has been a rash of DDoS attacks on pretty much
everything from XBox to North Korea.  From what I understand, different
hacker groups are claiming responsibility for nearly every single attack.

Now, it occurs to me that the possibility that a bunch of hackers starting
to form groups at around the same time is highly unlikely.  However, there
is another interesting, and more likely explanation: new tech.

This tech would have to make DDoS so easy, your grandmother could do it.
It would have to be affordable, reliable, adaptable, and known throughout
the hacker community, but not necessarily to the general public.  It would
have to be run through a server in such a way that not one of the attacks
used can be linked.  And, most importantly, it would have to be intelligent
enough to find a weak link in the destination and exploit it.  If I am
correct, then man-children in basements everywhere are trying to glorify
themselves by taking down high profile targets and then boasting about it
in a way that makes them seem bigger than they are.

Am I completely wrong?  Am I missing something?  Is this not even news?
Why do I feel like this is too obvious?