The parks are still near-pristine and spotless every morning. Sure, queues here and there are a little dusty but most people don't notice that. The parks get dirtier throughout the day for several reasons: higher volume of people moving through the parks - its very hard to clean a queue when its packed with people all day. Also, guests/society becoming more self-centered, lazy, careless, and disrespectful.
I politely suggest that guests are
not "more self-centered, lazy, careless, and disrespectful". The problem is money, specifically WDW's budgets.
Throughout the ages, the older generation often complained that the younger generation was "more self-centered, lazy, careless, and disrespectful". An old quote often misattributed to Socrates reads:
"The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise."
Even though Socrates did not write these words, the sentiment is not new. I recall similar views being expressed in the 1970s and 1980s, during WDW's Golden Age.
I also recall WDW being pristine in the 1970s and 1980s. Today it's not.
People have not changed.
WDW has changed.
As you acknowledge, the parks start the morning "a little dusty". They also have nicks and scratches, chipped paint, worn fixtures, and burned out bulbs. Attractions have broken animatronics, month after month, year after year.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, WDW's maintenance budgets were slashed. Every year since, those "sharp-pencil guys" (as Walt Disney called them) figure out new ways to squeeze a few more pennies out of budgets. Over the last 20 years, this has resulted in a palpable decline in WDW quality.
The budget cuts also have resulted in a concept referred to as the
Broken Windows Theory. It's the idea that when something is not properly maintained, it encourages petty vandalism and other bad behavior. It's the idea that people take visual cues from their surrounding environment to determine what behavior is acceptable.
Although the term dates back to the 1980s, it's a concept Walt Disney understood when he opened Disneyland in 1955. Quoting Walt:
"When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say 'But why do you want to build an amusement park? They're so dirty.' I told her that was the point, mine wouldn't be."
Quoting Walt again:
"Everybody thinks that Disneyland is a goldmine but we have had our problems. You've got to work it and know how to handle it. Even trying to keep that park clean is a tremendous expense. And those sharp-pencil guys tell you, 'Walt, if we cut down on maintenance, we'd save a lot of money.' But I don't believe in that. It's like any other show on the road; it must be kept clean and fresh."
Walt understood that if you treat the customers and their surroundings with respect, they'll treat your business with respect.
If you charge them outrageous prices, pack them in to hour-long lines, and allow their surroundings to deteriorate, they are going to behave accordingly.
It's a concept completely lost by today's corporate Disney management.
