I came in right before the peak, I had about maybe 6 months in when it just started changing overnight. I noticed that top posts were all garbage, I actually deleted all the default subs, except politics, and even that got dumped recently. It's definitely been sinking. It's just a huge ship so it's taking a while. That being said, you don't sound like an asshole actually.
Yeah. I always used Reddit for the subreddits. It was very convenient to have one single account on a single site than have multiple accounts across a spectrum of different forums. At the same time, it offered me the bonus of sometimes stumbling on new things. Personally, I think I noticed a change around my fifth or sixth account, so about 2 years ago. It was like overnight, people just stopped trying. They stopped trying to find new and interesting things to talk about. They stopped trying to have open and honest discussions. They stopped trying to meet people half way during debates. They stopped trying to promote OC. On and on and on. The fact that people like /u/gallowboob can reap so much karma today when three or four years ago people would have hated him for what he does is very telling.