"I know there are tons of programmers churning out low-quality code." People repeat this kind of sentiment all the time but is there anything to back it up? I

"I know there are tons of programmers churning out low-quality code." People repeat this kind of sentiment all the time but is there anything to back it up? I know we've all run into to random bits of code we considered "low quality". But that can often be attributed to code that was written a very long time ago when programming practices were much different. At the time it was written it was likely high-quality code. It's like saying that a Gallbladder removal surgery from 20 years ago was "low quality" because it wasn't done orthoscopically, that technology was barely used at the time. I'm starting to think that "tons of low-quality coders" is an industry myth to explain a variety of unrelated phenomena. The modern-day equivalent of the boogeyman. But let me know if I'm wrong.