It's like any arms race. A 600 Million dollar Destroyer right up to about 2004 was capable and flexible for most tasks expected.
Anti-ship missiles improved a whole lot and by 2010, most ships had launchers for them. Also even an ancient C130 can carry the new anti-ship missiles. They drop them out the back as they are tasked. Miniaturization of computers means the guidance suite is on the missile. Truly fire and forget. Russia and China make a copy of the AGM84 that is equally as capable. While the AGM84 has been around since 1977, the newer version isn't really the same missile. There are systems to launch it from Air, Land and Sea - it can even be launched out of a torpedo tube.
The Zumwalt is intended to be invisible/spoof the new missiles. It also carries a load of Tomahawk missiles along with sea to air and sea to sea missiles. A few years ago the Jimmy Carter was the sneakiest and most capable ship in the ocean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jimmy_Carter_(SSN-23) The biggest limitation on the Zumwalt is that it is not Nuclear powered. Nobody really knows if it's propulsive system will work under continuous operation of a year or more.
The other thing that people are beginning to realize is that Aircraft Carriers are going the way of the Battleship. The Chinese demonstrated a few years ago that they can take out an Aircraft Carrier if they ever needed to.