Very interesting. This explains a lot.

I thought there was a change in the way they did things at some point. There was a period in either the late 80's or early 90's when our local Taco Bell (the one where I'd worked) sucked so bad that I actually stopped going for a year or two. Then it got new management and shaped up again, but since then, the food never seemed quite as fresh as when I'd worked there in the mid-80's.