I don't think I'm plugged into the side of the Internet that considers XML "the backbone of an independent web."

I think XML has some good features, but in general infatuation with it as either a key representation or key transmission protocol has waned over the years. Everything I see on the wire these days is JSON or some flavor of binary RPC like protobuffer; I hardly ever see XML on the wire anymore.

XML is not so good for most of the things it was used for, and JSON has some problems too (I prefer DER), but Google is doing many bad things with WWW and not only things relating to XML, whether or not XML is good.