In things like construction, I don't think it's entirely because the quality of the work is getting worse, it's probably more that as engineering has improved,

In things like construction, I don't think it's entirely because the quality of the work is getting worse, it's probably more that as engineering has improved, we're building closer to the margins, and so sloppy work more often has consequences. I have a house from 1945, and the material dimensions indicate that nobody ever calculated anything, they looked at some beam and though "that ought to do it" usually to the good side. Various hacks I've seen around old houses tell the same story.. So with everything massively overdimensioned, there is plenty of room for error without any consequence. For things like customer service, I partly blame software and internet.. It's about margins again, profit margins this time, and as cut down as they are in many areas, there's simply no way to compete if you employ actual human beings that can actually solve customer problems.. Much better just to let those caught in edge-cases crash and burn, this high churn means nothing and it'd be very unprofitable to provide a high quality of customer service.