It can be interpreted as a failure of C++ only to not be the panacea that it was hyped up to be. Most everybody is now determining that C++ has it's uses. There are things that it is very good at. However, it is not the best language for all applications. There are things that make C better than it's offspring, and that is what leads people to still use C.

This is true of all programming languages. They all have their place, and one mark of a great programmer is knowing when to use the one over the other.

Ben