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The assumption that shotgun design has stagnated is myopic. Look at the turn bolt rifle, single and double action revolver and the auto-loading pistol. They've changed less over the last 100+ years than the shotgun. The reason for shooting multiple pellets rather than a single bullet is primarily to hit moving targets (generally birds and small game), and the shotgun has evolved very well along those lines.
Other uses of the shotgun be they buck slayers or antipersonnel are deviations from the original intent. Using buck shot over bullets is usually because of legal requirements. Given their druthers, wouldn't most deer hunters prefer balls to buck? Anyone who watches John Wayne westerns knows that for a gunfight, you give a shotgun to the the guys who don't know about guns -- proficient shooters get the rifles and handguns.
Yes, shotguns have limited applications for the military, law enforcement, and tactical wannabes. But, these limited applications shouldn't be used as a yardstick to evaluate overall shotgun evolution. I suspect the next generation of multi-caliber smart combat rifles will relegate the combat shotgun to obscurity. There will be no civilian counterparts of the next generation of MIL/LW arms and the tactic-cool fad will fade.
Redlevel42 was pretty close with his, "When they figured out how to mount two barrels, side by side… they reached the apex, the epitome of shotgun technology." But, he neglects to take into account the major upgrade accomplished by turning the venerable side-by-side on edge. The over/under configuration solved the major complaints resulting from the SxS's horizontal eccentricity. If you were to go back a hundred years, the shooter of that day would easily recognize the little changed rifles and revolvers; but, a single-trigger O/U with screw-in chokes would seem like something from Mars.
Auto-loading shotguns have evolved along the same lines as auto pistols and rifles over the last hundred years, or so. Yet, there's no comparison when putting a modern gas operated shotgun with a similar rifle. The shotgun's ability to function with a wide variety of ammo demonstrates a higher degree of sophistication than the rifle.
IMHO, if you need more than two (or possibly three shots) from a shotgun then you either need more practice or you selected the wrong type of gun for the situation.
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