Does it strike anybody as strange that an operating system is getting worse over time rather than better?
I somewhat expect it, as we've seen desktop OSes come to be influenced by mobile OSes, or worse, as we've seen desktop OSes modified to also act as mobile OSes.
Trying to combine these two very different types of usage into one product, like we've seen with recent versions of Windows and open source desktop environments (like GNOME 3), results in the worst of both worlds.
Even in the case of macOS, where there's at least some separation, the influence from the mobile side can still harm the desktop experience.
What do you think they should be doing to make it "better"? Steering an operating system is not easy.
They're rolling out their new filesystem. They're adjusting the way it can schedule things to improve battery life. Things like that may not sound profound but they're important.
That doesn't even bother me as long as things work properly.
You can accept my unqualified opinion or not as is your wont. The failings of recent releases of MacOS are well documented online if you do a search for them.