Actually, it isn't as bad as
spiregrain suggests. 10% resistors are not
easy to find nowadays, and they actually use a different process for 1% resistors. 5% resistors are usually pretty close, and you will occasionally find one that is as close as 1% in the 5% batch.
It has more to do with the
economies of scale than '
the man'
sticking it to you yet again. It's
cheaper to make resistors using the 5% process, and they are in much higher demand than 1%. But the 1% process is getting sufficiently cheap that eventually the 5% will go the way of the 10%.