Toilets
I’m all in favor of conserving water and helping the environment, but modern toilets simply don’t have the oomph of the toilets of yesteryear. Today you’re lucky to even clear away a rabbit dropping in a couple of flushes. But boy howdy, back in the day you could clear a pile of T-rex poop with a single flush. It was like breaching the Hoover Dam with each depression of the handle.
Regarding recorded music: I think what has gone backward more so than the media and compressed file format the music is recorded on are the components younger generations choose to play music back on. In my experience (with my late teen/early 20s kids and their friends), they have no desire to listen to their music on high-end (but large and cumbersome) components, choosing instead the convenience and portability of small devices.
To be sure, the sound quality of many contemporary portable devices is quite good…for their size. But, it doesn’t compare to the sound of Hi-Fi systems previous generations built and enjoyed. The young people I know have no desire for a high-end sound system even when listening at home, where portability isn’t required. And, I guess they don’t want to look dorky even wearing a good set of headphones, opting instead for average-sounding earbuds. They seem to want good quality, but don’t care about great quality.
When I fire up my big speakers and huge sub-woofer my kids yell, “turn that music down, it’s shaking the house!” When I was young, my parents scolded, “turn your damned music down!” Now, my kids tell me the same thing. I can’t win. Maybe my grandkids will be cool. 