everything is made to the exact level that the consumer is willing to accept based on their limited understanding of what it is they are buying. the more familiar the consumer is with the type of product - the higher the quality of the product will be produced in order to be accepted by the consumer.

i find that things are NOT made worse but rather there is a wider range from worst to best than there used to be. in the past everything was OK but now there is everything from completely unusable garbage to absolute state of the art. all depends on how long you research and how much you are willing to spend.