Boris Gudenuf
Deity
The problem with Spy Actions is that the penalties and costs remain the same in all Ages, even though the availability of Influence does not. I find that on average my per turn Influence doubles with every Age, so that a per turn average of 25 - 40 in Antiquity becomes 100 - 150 by Modern. Since the cost of an Espionage Action remains static, that means it actually becomes considerably cheaper by Modern Age. In general, by then I'm getting hit with a Steal X action every 2 - 3 turns on average, which no matter what Counterspy action I take gets annoying very fast.I don't think it's reasonable to disable spying without deep system rebalance. Spying plays important role in both influence economics (by providing additional targets to spend and decreasing influence income) and in conflict management (by adding negative relations on revealed espionage).
Also, spying doesn't hurt you the same way it did in Civ5 and Civ6, actually it's a good source of influence. So, while it's annoying to see, it's not bad actually.
Easy Solution would be to either have each successive Steal X action increase in cost, or have each Espionage Action increase with each Age to keep in line with the general increase in other 'currencies' like Influence in each Age.