Also, I'd add, I think it has to do with there being a very magical time in which Apple was filled with the brilliant minds of NeXT. In some ways I even view NeXT as having acquired Apple rather than the other way around. A group of brilliant engineers who got their hands on a consumer electronics company. It wasn't just Steve Jobs who left Apple. There was attrition of NeXT engineers after that very short golden period. And as much I hate to admit it as someone who is middle aged, I do think youth is a huge advantage, so that even the remaining NeXT people don't have the same vision or drive as they once did. I mean Craig Federeghi came from NeXT but he now has macOS saddled with about four different programming frameworks. They lost Scott Forstall, as well. And I would imagine Steve Jobs was less involved in the latter years of his life as his health had declined precipitously. I wouldn't put the line of demarcation as when Jobs died. It was before that, around the time of Lion honestly is when the software quality went downhill for me, which I believe is the last Bertrand Serlet worked on. For me the golden period—the height—was very short. This probably sounds like an odd and esoteric example, but iDVD was the pinnacle of Apple. I don't think they could write an app like that now. Year over year updates to their consumer apps, and honestly they're crap—all of the first party Mac apps. I don't use them. Does anybody actually read news on the Mac in the News app? Just trying to make the text bigger or smaller is like wrestling an alligator (there's no pinch to zoom). Literally any web browser is an infinitely better reader, and that app's sole purpose is to make reading news better. They didn't used to put crap like that out, and certainly not over multiple generations of the OS. Fortunately, there are things they don't touch in the OS and it works as a foundation for third party apps so I still find it serviceable. Unfortunately, that golden age is long, long gone.
