Programming languages: How abstracted?

As far as programming languages, the desirable direction seems to be complete abstraction: from hardware languages like a logic circuit to software-but-hardware-specific languages to object-oriented languages. In the real world, obviously this can be counterproductive, and some needs lend themself to very specific solutions. But as computing power and miniturization increases, abstraction between hardware, low-level software, and high-level software becomes more possible and probably more desirable. I say probably because if this is not done in a careful, open way, it will simply introduce more places where bugs can live and reduce the stability of things in general.