For certain domain of problems SQL is the 100 year language. You have to define tables and indexes but you don't get to chose how joins are performed - query optimizer knows about your high-level request to chose optimal execution strategy most of the time. It's a small leap from there (in historical terms) to make the indexes built automatically via profile-guided-optimization.

Similarly, Flex is the 100 year language for UI. It's almost entirely devoid of implementation details and you get to spend most of your time describing what you want to see. What Flex is for Flash, open OpenLaszlo is for HTML.