I've worked in the tech industry now for 15 years, and based on personal experience and from what I've read up on, this stuff is happening due to the cost cutting measures that are happening in nearly every industry.
Experienced workers in this industry are being replaced by the lowest cost options, (either thru outsourcing or straight out of college kids) who will work at a fraction of the price. So instead of a nicely designed product with a well thought out interface, done by people in the know who have done this many times in the past...a lot of new stuff is being under designed, released in quicker time frames, rolled out with more bugs and less features....all in the name of getting the lowest cost option to market at the expense of well working and well tested products otherwise.
This is the main reason why we are seeing sites like this degrade IMO....