I'm getting a strong feeling that the first generation of really, really talented people who built iOS in the 2000s have now to a substantial degree moved on/retired. Similar feeling with OS X/macOS.

Please correct me if I'm wrong - it is after all just a feeling.

Maybe they started to use some internal "Siri Code" tool ...

They should stick to Claude Code, like everyone else.

I would say Catalina in 2019 already had enormous issues, there were hard faults in Console pretty much daily that Apple never bothered to fix. (Plus hundreds of minor faults per day)

I had to downgrade to Mojave so the wheels likely came off internally around then.

Recent?

They have been last to get Widgets. They don't have apps I use (terminals, emulators, pulse wave generators). Not to mention Gemini AI is actually really nice for scanning a screen and doing actions with it.

Apple is always 2nd place or worse. Except marketing, they are #1.