Like a home owner who decided to always have his house mortgaged at 20% of its value. 
When he bought it for $200,000, he had a $40,000 mortgage. Now that it is worth $2,000,000, he has a $400,000 mortgage. 
You totally failed to consider the asset side of the equation. Yes all of these companies have more debt, much of it locked in at low rates for decades so they are not susceptible to risng rates. Meanwhile they have far more in assets, productive assets and are continuing month after month to place new projects into operation, producing increasing cash flow that allows them to pay shareholders higher dividends while maintaining the same range of payout ratios.
You might want to look beyond "oh no, they have more debt today than a decade ago." They were typically much smaller companies back then.
Or you can sit on the sidelines and recover to breakeven levels over a 10-year period.