The whole standardization process over at the W3 has somehow managed to get broken. In the past couple of years they have put forth a whole pile of obscure narrow standards that are so complex, ugly and specialized that nobody has implemented them. One glance at XQuery (think SQL with a more akward XML based syntax) is enough to send people fleeing.
And the CSS 3 mess is beyond comprehension. The CSS 3 standard is so big, complex and inclusive that they may never manage to finish it. They have been working since 2000, and they already have 2008 dates on their tenative schedule.
Jay