Disintermediation
Etymology
The term originated in 1960s–70s finance, where it described depositors pulling money out of banks to invest directly in higher-yielding markets, cutting out the bank as intermediary. With the rise of the web it was borrowed to describe how the internet lets buyers and sellers bypass traditional middlemen. It literally means removing ("dis-") the one in the middle ("intermediary").
noun · /dis-in-ter-mee-dee-AY-shun/
The removal of middlemen so that producers and consumers deal with each other directly.
What it names
It explains a defining move of the digital economy: artists selling straight to fans, travelers booking without agents, writers publishing without publishers.
Example
Streaming promised disintermediation for musicians, but in practice it mostly swapped record labels for platform gatekeepers.
Related idea
Disintermediation removes the middleman; reintermediation is its frequent sequel, where a new intermediary — an app store, a marketplace, a platform — quietly installs itself in the gap the old one left.