In the past 'the average person' was more often able to correctly assess the quality of any object (is it 'crap'?), because everything was way less technically

In the past 'the average person' was more often able to correctly assess the quality of any object (is it 'crap'?), because everything was way less technically evolved. There was no way to replace a high-quality fabric (cloth) or material (for example of a chair) by some synthetic matter. Assembly and finish quality were easy to assess (out of rare high-end objects which were pieces of art). A restaurant couldn't sell a meal which is in fact some industrially-produced sh*t. We are more and more professionally specialized, and therefore less and less able to really understand what stands before our eyes if it isn't at least related to our discipline of choice. Marketing exploits this by infusing vague conceptions, mainly 'if it comes from brand X, it has to be of high quality'.