Your view on the system now, as it is today.

I'll have to say from my experience its stayed the same.

Went down the K and A when it was reopened. And it hasen't really changed. Water levels are still low, locks still leak.

There are more boats moored up. So perhaps that tips it to being worse.

There's been some deterioration since I've had my boat (10 years), a few Elsan points and other facilities closing, but overall I'd say it's all fairly minor stuff and not enough to diminish the experience in any great way.

This post appeared on Faceache yesterday...

"After having g a chat to a CRT guy in our marina , he informed us the plans to indefinitely close the Stannedge tunnel /huddersfield narrow and the Rochdale canal ! As every set of lock gates need replacing! And they simply don’t have the money !! That means all we will have up here is the Leeds Liverpool ! He says the tunnel needs lots of repairs too which they can’t afford !"

Since the late 70's, things had got better, but now creeping back. Most of my boating is around the Midlands, and generally it has got much busier except on the BCN where you can still experience few delays and generally it is a lot more welcoming. I miss some of the atmospheric parts of Birmingham, and the Black Country but for being busier around the canals, it is less threatening.
In built up areas one has to have a certain amount of sympathy for CaRT where they have to deal with non boater abuse with facilities. At Easter, I found the rubbish compound closed with bins moved across to the Boatyard. It inconvenienced me less than the individual who arrived in a car with about a dozen bags of rubbish. He didn't go over to the boatyard. . The redevelopment of the towpaths  cycleways does not help and often the shore bound (non) customers do not always look favourably upon boaters.
Maybe repairs take longer to get done, and the absence of lenghtsmen has taken away the wise souls who could anticipate niggles and prevent them from becoming disasters. The proliferation of pen pushers in CaRT doesn't help in getting jobs done as their contractors will obviously stretch out work, and the 'elf & safety' card is another weapon they can use without challenge. The 'green' lobby is also another thorn in the side where they can unfavourably affect the waterway for very spurious unchallenged claims. I always recall that in the Monty restoration, Aston Locks were delayed being opened, and were then restricted in use because of the Great Crested Newt. Before the volunteers did the job and it was put into water, where were the newts then? Similarly when the National was at Autherley a few years ago, a significant length of the prime moorings were closed off after some one thought they saw a water vole. ( It was thought at the time that it was a malicious act by the local angling club. 
For all that, the biggest delays are always allied to increased boat activity, so things can't be all bad if that is the case. In 2000, our Club cruised from Autherley to Burton, had half a day on a tour of Marstons and back to base within 8 days over Spring Bank Holiday. 25 years ago there was a lot more camaraderie with help at locks, but todays boaters don't seem to engage in that. The average boat may be longer now so there is less lock sharing. There also seems to me to be instances where the Continuous Cruisers are less inclusive in the whole community these days.
As I said, we're based around the Midlands so elsewhere may be different, particularly up north where the resurrection of waterways and loss of reservoirs has resulted in problems there. Our local restorations I can recall, The South Stratford and the Stourbridge, seem to have been more successful.

CRT have to present the canals as being of benefit to more groups other than just boaters who are, rightly or wrongly (wrongly in my case) seen as being generally fairly wealthy and thus undeserving of subsidy.