In my experience average code quality has considerably improved in the last, say, 20 years, I'd guess because of open source and the internet spreading higher standards, hardware and systems improvement relaxing efficiency constraints, and better education that just takes time to spread. When I started my job after college, the first day they handed me a 20-page DOS batch file to modify, and yes, part of that's my career trajectory, but I think there's more to it. I didn't say so, but in my own head "this is shit" was among my reactions, and shit these days has to work to measure up.