The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

Access to Quality & Inequality

• Several commenters argue high-quality, durable goods now exist mostly at the top end: luxury brands, artisanal makers, commercial gear (e.g., restaurant equipment, pro tools, some Japanese brands).
• Middle‑class mass‑market options that used to be “good enough for decades” are perceived as hollowed out; quality comparable to the past often costs 2–10x more and is harder to find.
• Some see this as tied to inequality: elites outsource the hassle (assistants, IT staff, house managers) and don’t feel the pain of fragile systems or disposable luxury items.

Consumer Goods: Clothing, Furniture, Appliances

• Strong consensus that fast fashion and big‑box basics (T‑shirts, socks, jeans) have visibly declined: thinner fabric, rapid pilling, distortion after first wash, short lifespans, and polyester creep.
• Others report still-fine quality if you avoid ultra‑cheap channels, do more research, or use specific brands / categories (selvedge denim, certain Japanese or workwear labels).
• Ikea and similar: split views. Many recall older, heavier, more solid ranges; others say cheap particleboard was always there, but now higher‑end options are rarer and veneer/cardboard more common.
• Appliances: recurring pattern of “bought the same model 10–20 years apart; newer one is flimsier, fails sooner, harder to repair” versus counterexamples of long‑lasting brands (e.g., some commercial or premium lines).

Inflation, Enshittification, and Capitalism

• One camp blames simple inflation and consumer demand for low prices: people choose cheap over durable, so firms rationally optimize for “lowest cost technically acceptable.”
• Another camp argues it’s not inflation but profit‑seeking and weak regulation: consolidation, private equity, and near‑monopolies enable “enshittification” (worse products, higher prices, captive customers).
• Debate over whether most industries are truly monopolized or just more concentrated and financially interconnected (common large shareholders).

Planned vs Premature Obsolescence

• Some insist planned obsolescence is real and pervasive (battery policies, OS cutoffs, right‑to‑repair fights, proprietary standards).
• Others prefer “premature obsolescence” or “value engineering”: companies don’t design explicit failure timers, they just never invest in longevity or repairability beyond what buyers demand or law requires.
• Agreement that feature churn and model refreshes can make still‑functional products “obsolete” for software, fashion, or ecosystem reasons.

Technology & Services: AI, Phones, Cars

• Smartphones: split view. Many say modern phones are vastly higher quality than 2000s devices (reliability, connectivity, cameras), but less durable, less repairable, more locked‑down and surveillant.
• Cars: data points both ways. New cars are safer, last longer on average, but are more complex, expensive, and sometimes less robust; “peak car” is often placed around the 1990s–2010s.
• Customer service: automation and AI are widely experienced as quality degradation; some experts in the article call this adaptation failure by society, commenters counter that the tech simply isn’t good enough and is used mainly to cut labor.

Measurement, Perception, and Nostalgia

• Several warn about survivorship bias and rose‑tinted memories: only the old good stuff survives; 70s‑90s were full of junk too (including food).
• Others argue the decline is empirically visible when you compare old and new iterations of the same product and when “quality” changes are systematically excluded or mis‑measured in inflation statistics.
• There’s an underlying disagreement over evaluation criteria: durability vs features, environmental cost vs access and affordability, subjective aesthetics vs objective reliability.

Proposed Responses

• Suggested levers include stricter regulation (right‑to‑repair, durability standards, antitrust, executive liability), better consumer education on quality, stronger unions, and shifting away from growth‑at‑all‑costs models.
• On the individual side, some advocate: buy fewer but higher‑quality items, support repairable and commercial‑grade products, avoid obviously enshittified brands, and use second‑hand or local craftspeople where possible.