Introduction

CSS is undergoing its most significant evolution in over a decade.
Historically, developers relied heavily on:

• BEM naming conventions
• preprocessors like SASS or LESS
• global styles that easily collided
• complex CSS-in-JS runtimes
• design systems implemented through component libraries

The web has changed.
Modern applications demand scalable styling patterns, low runtime overhead, and predictable, maintainable design systems.

Two major movements define today’s landscape:

1. Utility-First CSS (Tailwind and successors)

2. Native-First CSS (powerful new language features)

These movements coexist—not as rivals, but as complementary forces.