Service has gone down in the US. They don't even put icing on the burgers any more or sugar dip the hot dogs.

I think it is intuitively due to staffing decreases (due to places not paying what people want to be paid), and the general decline of belief in the idea that "if you work hard, you'll make it."

That said, there are a couple weird things to point out here:

1. The pay for staff has drastically went up. It's still not adequate in most cases, but some went up like 2x what it was. I think it's less the gig economy and more that since there are many job openings, people do not feel compelled to work doing things they don't enjoy.

2. There's at least one very large chain store that I'm aware of playing on the "no one wants to work" thing. They constantly posts signs that they're hiring, yet never hire anyone. I suspect it's much cheaper to operate the store with a "skeleton crew" and that there are diminished returns (even though they're returns) in focusing on expanding the workforce. "Hey, we'll just charge more and use less help to make up for this."

I'd also like to see a comparison of inflation when correlated with population of those in the workforce. "Be happy with less" makes sense if there are more people to split the pot with. However, everything I read indicates the population is down in comparison.