Personally, I think it stems more from the fact that people are measuring a new rifle against those that have been out since the 1960's like the Ruger 10-22. I mean, come on, you compare the other tactical 22 rifles that have come out recently and each of those have their own set of issues from ill-fitting parts to a lack of features.
Customer Service, and for that matter Quality Control, have steadily gone downhill recently and the answer why really is quite simple. These are the two departments that, overall, do not make a company money and if anything may even be money sinks. Why else do you see other outfits reducing headcount and/or outsourcing those jobs overseas?
You can live under the illusion that Colt, Kimber, Glock, or Beretta are going to be somehow better but rest assured each one of those companies will have the EXACT same issues. The ONLY times where I have seen this to be not the case is with the premium outfits that are not so much mass-market like Les Baer or STI who focus purely on high-end precision gear. The reason for this being is quite simple: quality gear is EXPENSIVE.
Not really fond of the trend where CS and QC come second but it's the direction the market has taken so I learn to deal with things with a bit less drama. I deal with that BS enough at work as it is already especially since I deal with this kind of thing every day (read: work in software QA).