The economic downturn/recession/crash has rippled throughout the world, and has forced the majority of (if not all) companies to reduce the manufacturing cost of their products in order to maintain or increase their profit margins.
The only way they can do this is to have cheaper components fitted to their products, this means basically inferior quality components, and products built to a cost, so switches and the like are just gonna be cheap shite, but, tiz the way of the world and as long as customers put up with cheap shite products, then the big boys will keep making them cheaper.
They don't want the product to last, they want to sell you a new one every couple of years....... built in obsolescence!
You pay £15k for a product with faulty switch gear?? Greeaat.....