Here's my simple theory. Increasing the level of quality is not rewarded and often actively discouraged. Almost all software is stuck at the "barely tolerable minimum level of quality". The quality level remains constant (or goes down) regardless of any productivity gain. Any and all productivity gain is spent for expanding scope, chasing more features, etc... Volume of work is increased so that the development team is perpetually understaffed. I have never once seen a team that had what you could remotely call a healthy or appropriate level of staffing. It has always been "the absolute minimum we can possibly get away with and never more". This leaves zero room for any kind of maintenance or quality improvement. Every day is a fight just to keep the lights on. I have seen people queitly sneaking-in maintenance work because that was the only way it could be done.