It depends on your point of view if the b9 gearbox is better or worse than its predecessor, from Audis perspective it's a better design as they're carrying less weight and cost, indeed the best design is just good enough to meet the reliability requirements with standard engines.
From our point of view we'd prefer a bit of "fat" in the design to allow us to have our tuning fun, however the manufacturers ability to design "closer to the edge" is getting better all the time so unfortunately the days of over designing are numbered.
When it comes to cars in general I'd say the quality has improved significantly over the years, the current Audi range is better than a Rolls-Royce from 20 years ago. I can't remember the last time I broke down (obviously will be tomorrow now I've said this) which if anyone was driving cars in the 80's you would have expected gremlins and rust as standard.
When it comes to consumer goods in general I'd agree standards have reduced, but this is driven by modern culture. My Nan had the same washing machine all her married life and it was built like a tank, Manufacturers could still produce long life machines but no one would pay the additional cost, or would want a "out of date" product in their kitchen after a few years.
So I guess the moral of the story is... if an item (like a gearbox) is "good", "bad", "better", "worse" or "good quality" it depends on your point of view.
