In my line of work, I've been in and around McDonald's in this region for almost 30 years now.
Sold installs, did installs, inspected, whatever....
As a result, I became friendly with several managers of locations - and one day, I did one of
them a "solid" and made a housecall to his location without charging him for it (it was local...
and I was hungry).
He offers to feed me and I graciously decline - but then thought about it for a second.
I said "I've always wondered why the quality of the product has gone down so much.
Is it the plastic bins/assembly line nature of things or something about the food itself?"
He asks what I mean specifically, but doesn't deny any of what I'm saying, sadly nodding
in agreement instead....
I told him my experience with the then brand new Quarter Pounder w/Cheese in the early 70's;
how many bazillion I'd probably eaten over the years since, up until about a decade ago.
I asked if he'd do an experiment for me - and take one of those right out of the walk-in
and fry it up before my eyes on the griddle.
He happily agreed and we watched a worker fry that rascal up right out of the freezer, me
getting my hopes up that it would be better.
Well....it wasn't. At all.
I looked at him all forlorn and apologised; he shrugged, shook his head again and said "told ya".
It ain't how they do it, folks - well, that contributes to be fair - it's the quality of the food.
Same exact thing happening at Burger King also; they do the same thing there, too.