• they are often “cheaper” then what you would have paid in the 80s and they are built to that price
• they are more efficient, which means every thing has tighter tolerances and thus more likely to break
• they are more complicated due to the above which means more to break
• with the above efficiently they use way less water but in my experience that means they clean worse

Partly it’s survivorship bias.

20 years back my family got a new house.

The wisdom then was same as now, they don’t build em like they used to. Within 5 years the stove stopped working and a year later the air conditioning went out. However the rest of the original stuff is still going and the replacements have lasted fine too and now are the prime examples of what people will point to to say things lasted longer back then.