The Enshittification Economy: How Infinite Growth Destroyed Products and Created Disruption Opportunities

The pursuit of infinite growth has fundamentally transformed products and services across the economy, creating a paradox where companies achieve record profits while customer satisfaction plummets. This systematic degradation—dubbed "enshittification"—has left entire industries vulnerable to disruption from competitors who simply offer what used to be standard.

The pattern is unmistakable: companies add complexity, extract fees, remove features, and manipulate customers through sophisticated psychological techniques. Airlines now generate $7.27 billion annually from baggage fees alone, a service universally included until 2008. Streaming services have fragmented into 100+ platforms costing more than cable, the very model they disrupted. Private equity-owned companies are 10 times more likely to go bankrupt while extracting billions through financial engineering. This research reveals how the relentless pursuit of growth has degraded customer experience across industries—and why simple alternatives are winning.

The casino floor as laboratory for extraction

The evolution of slot machines represents perhaps the purest distillation of enshittification principles. What began in 1895 as Charles Fey's transparent mechanical Liberty Bell has transformed into a sophisticated behavioral manipulation system generating $70+ billion annually in the United States alone.

The transformation accelerated with a 1984 patent for "virtual reel mapping" that explicitly allowed manufacturers to make machines "perceived to present greater chances of payoff than it actually has." Modern slots employ losses disguised as wins—scenarios where players "win" less than their wager accompanied by celebratory sounds. Research from MIT's Natasha Dow Schüll documents how casinos now track betting patterns, reaction times, and button-press frequency up to 1,200 times per hour, using AI to modify game difficulty and payout frequency based on individual psychology.

The human cost proves staggering. 50.2% of slot machine players develop gambling problems compared to less than 25% for lottery players. The industry deliberately evolved from entertainment to extraction, with 60% of gaming machine revenue in Canada coming from problem gamblers. Server-based gaming enables real-time manipulation—patents exist for systems detecting when players approach loss tolerance and automatically triggering bonuses or near-misses to extend play sessions.

This represents enshittification in its purest form: technology advances used not to improve user experience but to maximize extraction from vulnerable populations through predatory design.

Airlines strip away the basics of flight

The airline industry's transformation from comprehensive service to à la carte pricing demonstrates how entire sectors can successfully degrade their core product while increasing profits. In the 1970s, federal law required airlines to provide entrée, two vegetables, salad, dessert, and drink included in ticket price. Economy seats offered 34-36 inches of pitch. Even 70-minute flights included hot meals.

Today's reality starkly contrasts. Seat pitch has shrunk to 29-32 inches (28 inches on Spirit), while width decreased from 18 to 16.5-17 inches. American Airlines became the first major carrier to charge baggage fees in May 2008, citing fuel costs. Within two years, all major carriers followed, generating $12.4 billion in seating fees alone between 2018-2023.

The fee proliferation proves remarkable in scope. Spirit charges $35-69+ for carry-ons depending on when you pay. Airlines now monetize seat selection, boarding priority, blankets, and even water on some carriers. What economists call "unbundling" has transformed into systematic extraction—Southwest, the last holdout offering free bags, announced fees starting 2025.

Yet this degradation coincided with profit growth. Ancillary revenue reached $117.9 billion globally in 2023, with ultra-low-cost carriers deriving 14-19% of total revenue from fees. The paradox: J.D. Power satisfaction scores actually improved as passengers accepted the new reality, demonstrating how systematic industry-wide degradation can normalize declining standards.

Streaming services recreate cable's worst features

Netflix's simple promise—unlimited streaming for $7.99 monthly—has fragmented into a Byzantine ecosystem exceeding cable's complexity and approaching its cost. From three major players in 2010 (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon), the market exploded to over 100 streaming services by 2024.

Price inflation tells the story. Netflix's standard plan increased 94% from $7.99 to $15.49 between 2011-2024, then jumped to $17.99 in January 2025. Disney+ doubled from $6.99 to $13.99 in just four years. The top five ad-free services now cost ~$87 monthly, while average cable runs $147—but adding multiple niche services easily exceeds cable pricing.

Service degradation accompanied price increases. Netflix introduced ads in November 2022, forcing users to pay more for the ad-free experience they originally purchased. Password sharing crackdowns began in 2023, with Netflix charging $8 monthly per additional household. Ad tiers typically limit video quality to 720p, restrict downloads, and reduce simultaneous streams.

The industry recreated cable's worst aspects: content fragmentation across platforms, rising prices, advertising intrusion, and complex bundling. Average annual churn reached 47% as consumers juggle subscriptions. The market that disrupted cable by offering simplicity and value has evolved into its bloated predecessor.

Software transitions from ownership to eternal rental

Adobe's 2013 decision to end perpetual Creative Suite licenses marked a watershed in software enshittification. CS6 Master Collection cost $2,599 once; Creative Cloud now costs $659.88 annually forever. The math is stark: after 8-10 years, subscriptions become permanently more expensive than ownership.

Customer backlash proved fierce—petitions gathered 46,000+ signatures—yet Adobe's revenue grew 380% from $4.06 billion to $19.41 billion between 2013-2023. Microsoft followed suit, reducing Office perpetual version support from 10 to 5 years while pushing Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Autodesk ceased all perpetual licenses by 2016.

The model's genius lies in removing customer choice. Software companies no longer compete for upgrade purchases; they extract rent in perpetuity. Adobe's 30 million subscribers have no alternative for industry-standard creative tools. Features once included now require higher subscription tiers. Companies frame this as "continuous innovation," but it fundamentally shifts power from customers to vendors.

Simple challengers expose the bloat

Against this backdrop of systematic enshittification, companies succeeding through radical simplification reveal the vulnerability of complex incumbents. Their success demonstrates that customers will abandon "advanced" products for basic alternatives that simply work.

Southwest Airlines built the third-largest US carrier by avoiding complexity. Single aircraft type, point-to-point routing, no assigned seating—features competitors consider primitive—enabled 45+ years of consecutive profitability until COVID. The "Southwest Effect" sees fares drop 50% when they enter markets.

Dollar Shave Club captured 15% of the US razor market by selling basic razors at ~50% less than Gillette's ever-complexifying products. Unilever paid $1 billion for a company that succeeded by rejecting Gillette's 5+ blade "innovations."

Aldi and Lidl took 18% combined UK market share by offering 1,400 products versus 30,000+ at traditional supermarkets. During the cost-of-living crisis, their growth accelerated while complex competitors struggled. Customers choose limited selection and bring-your-own-bags inconvenience for 50% lower prices through operational simplicity.

WhatsApp grew to 2.95 billion users by refusing to add features. No usernames, no games, no complex profiles—just messaging. Facebook paid $19 billion for an app that succeeded by doing less.

These disruptors reveal a pattern: remove friction from core user journeys, eliminate intermediary costs, focus on single use-case excellence. Industries spending decades adding complexity become vulnerable to competitors who simply provide what customers originally wanted.

Satisfaction plummets while profits soar

The American Customer Satisfaction Index reveals a troubling paradox: customer satisfaction scores stagnated at 2012 levels while corporate profit margins increased 3-4% to ~11%. This disconnect concentrates in industries with high switching costs or monopolistic characteristics.

Comcast generates 12.72% profit margins despite receiving the worst customer satisfaction ratings of any company in ACSI surveys. Time Warner Cable achieved 97% profit margins on high-speed internet. Airlines with the highest profits—American and United—consistently score lowest in satisfaction. The pattern is clear: companies with captive customers optimize for extraction over experience.

Academic research confirms the mechanism. High switching costs create "monopoly power over locked-in consumers," enabling companies to maintain profits despite poor service. Cable companies exemplify this dynamic—1 in 5 internet customers report their ISP as their only option, while another 21% have just two choices. Geographic monopolies, regulatory barriers, and infrastructure requirements protect incumbents from competition.

The pharmaceutical industry pushes this to extremes, maintaining 23% profit margins versus 2.3% for other supply chain sectors while patients struggle with affordability. Health insurers score 565/1000 in satisfaction studies yet remain highly profitable. These industries discovered they can degrade service while raising prices if customers have nowhere else to go.

Private equity perfects value extraction

Private equity ownership represents enshittification's most aggressive form, employing financial engineering to systematically degrade businesses for short-term profit. Research reveals PE-owned companies are 10 times more likely to go bankrupt than comparable firms.

The playbook remains consistent. Toys R Us, acquired in 2005 for $6.6 billion (80% debt-financed), paid $400-517 million annually in interest while PE firms extracted $200 million in fees. Unable to invest in digital transformation, the company collapsed in 2017, eliminating 31,000 jobs.

In healthcare, the human cost proves devastating. PE-owned nursing homes show 10% higher short-term mortality, contributing to 20,150 excess deaths between 2005-2017. Quality metrics uniformly decline: 50% increase in dangerous antipsychotic use, 3% reduction in frontline nursing hours, 11% higher Medicare billing despite worse outcomes.

The veterinary industry consolidation under Mars Inc. (45% of corporate clinics) and PE firms drove 60% price increases over a decade. Red Lobster's 2024 bankruptcy followed Golden Gate Capital's immediate $1.5 billion sale-leaseback that saddled restaurants with $200 million in annual rent on previously owned properties.

PE firms perfect extraction through financial engineering: leveraged buyouts saddle companies with debt, sale-leasebacks create permanent rent obligations, dividend recapitalizations extract cash, and management fees charge companies for their own destruction. The model prioritizes extraction over sustainability, degrading essential services communities depend upon.

The great fee revolution

Perhaps no trend better exemplifies enshittification than the proliferation of fees for previously included services. Airlines led the charge, but every industry followed, creating a parallel economy of hidden charges.

Banking fees reached record highs: average overdraft fees hit $27.08, ATM fees $4.77, while the minimum balance to avoid monthly maintenance fees climbed to $10,210. Ticketmaster adds 15-30% to ticket prices through various fees. DoorDash layers delivery fees ($1.99-5.99), service fees (10-15%), and small order fees ($2.50) atop menu prices already inflated 20-30%.

Hotels perfected the deception with resort fees averaging $42.41 nationally, reaching over $100 at some properties. These mandatory charges for "amenities" like pool access—facilities guests expect at hotels—now represent 11% of total stay costs. Las Vegas's Luxor charges $45 fees on $25 rooms, nearly doubling the advertised price.

Software subscriptions embed automatic price increases, with SaaS inflation at 11.4% versus 2.7% general inflation. College textbook prices increased 1,041% between 1977-2015, rising 3x faster than inflation. Individual textbooks routinely cost $300-400, with new editions every 3-4 years increasing prices 12%.

The psychology proves insidious. Companies use "drip pricing"—revealing fees gradually through checkout—causing consumers to spend 21% more than with upfront all-in pricing. What began as airlines charging for bags evolved into systematic deception across industries.

Complexity as moat, simplicity as weapon

The enshittification economy creates its own vulnerabilities. As products become more complex, expensive, and user-hostile, opportunities emerge for challengers offering radical simplicity. Southwest still offers free bags while generating profits. Craigslist's 1990s-era design generates $1+ billion annually and 50 billion monthly page views. These successes reveal customer exhaustion with complexity.

The pattern suggests a cycle: companies add features and fees pursuing growth, products become worse while more profitable, customer satisfaction declines but switching costs prevent defection, then a simple alternative emerges and captures market share by doing less. The very complexity companies use as competitive moats becomes their vulnerability.

Industries investing billions in "innovation" that customers don't want—5-blade razors with vibrating handles, slot machines with 250 paylines, airlines with 30+ fee categories—create openings for competitors who simply provide what customers originally purchased. In an economy optimized for extraction over service, the radical act becomes offering a product that simply works.

Conclusion: The enshittification vulnerability

The data reveals a systematic transformation across the economy: products deliberately made worse to extract maximum revenue from captive customers. This isn't market failure but market success under current incentives—companies discovered they can degrade products while raising prices if customers lack alternatives.

Yet this creates massive vulnerability. Every industry exhibiting these patterns—complex products, proliferating fees, declining quality, captive customers—becomes susceptible to disruption from "worse" products that are actually better. The next wave of successful companies may be those with the courage to do less: fewer features, transparent pricing, simple experiences that just work.

The enshittification economy's greatest weakness is that it forgot what customers actually wanted. In pursuing infinite growth through infinite complexity, companies created infinite opportunities for those willing to offer finite, focused, simple alternatives. The question isn't whether these industries will be disrupted, but when entrepreneurs will recognize that in a world of everything, nothing becomes revolutionary.