I would add that not only the quality in general is degrading, but also the treatment of the brands and manufacturers to the customer. I believe that the feeling of abandonment (sometimes even scam) in which the brands subject their customers further deepen the feeling of lack of quality in general. A few years ago I bought a Samsung refrigerator. It came with a big "10 year warranty" sticker. After a couple of years or so, one day it stopped cooling. I thought what a piece of crap, but at least it had a warranty. I found out, over the phone, that the 10 year warranty was only for the compressor. Still, I was lucky because it was the compressor that had gone bad. But there was more fine print in the 10-year warranty: it only covered the compressor and only the price of the part. In other words, I had to pay for the technician to come to my house and replace the part. Almost 200 dollars for a refrigerator that had cost 800 and was supposedly under warranty.