Even if that had not happened, there would still be the decline of quality coupled with a simultaneous increase of prices.

The ~~corruption~~ lobbying unfortunately is pretty much a staple of every large corporation these days.

They haven't become lazy, they are taking quite an effort to squeeze the maximum amount of money out of the minimal possible effort. They aren't optimising for good products, they are optimising for maximum profits. With corporate suits not thinking ahead any further than the next quarter's numbers and the resulting stock value, they don't care that reputation is a finite resource that will run out quickly if you're selling it rather than products that are good enough to actually replenish the reputation.