light pollution

Does anyone know why there is a trend toward wide dispersion street lamps? And most of the newer lamps are brighter and provide a wider area of light. I think there's little concern on efficient use of electric power and no concern for light pollution(for the most part). Wouldn't street lamps be more effective and efficient if they were more focused and directional? I've seen new lamps put up on old highway lamp towers, and the new luminaire design is extremely wide dispersion and the old ones looked more like flashlights( more parabolic looking reflector and almost flat lens). I was not aware that the highway was not illuminated brightly enough at night. So generally there seems to be an overkill in street and highway lighting with no concern for light pollution. I'm sure there's more to street light design and engineering. But the area of the world that I see everyday is looking too artificial.