I've noticed they have gotten worse. After three bad MacBook Pros in a row, I bought a used 2015 MacBook Air, which has never given me a problem.
The pros all had battery/power issues, shutting down randomly several times a day. The keyboards were also horrible.
I've been a Thinkpad fan for years, and I use a Carbon X1 with Linux outside of work. No complaints about that, though I do wonder if it's as physically durable as the older, bulkier models.
I've noticed Lenovo is putting out more consumer grade laptops now. I don't know about their quality, but it doesn't seem as high as their professional line.
My son has a Dell XPS 15, and had to replace a loud, failing fan after a year.
I suppose manufacturers face a lot of pressure selling to consumers who don't know what to look for in terms of quality and don't understand why two visually similar machines with similar specs would be priced so differently. The low-end machines in Walmart look just like the high-end machines at Best Buy.
The business grade machines from Lenovo, Dell, and HP have incentive to be higher quality because businesses often buy them with high level service plans. Lenovo, Dell and HP really don't want to send techs into the field to service laptops if they can avoid it, and the best way to avoid that is to build a good product.