Why are CD's decling in quality?

ok thank you for the replies. I guess the problem is cdp related, well just bought the ARC mk3cdII so Ill soon know I guess, it will replace my pioneer transport which is old and broke down twice though I liked it a lot,
Elizabeth, great suggestion, I do care for the cds and did find try to keep them clean , perhaps a soft brush will help
Also listen to classical and have the same problem.
As to Redbook cds How do you know if a cd is redbook or not?

All "regular CDs" are Red Book. Other type is SACD.

I think in the beginning of the CD they used 1 laser. You could do most anything to the disc because only one laser was doing the tracking. Now I think they use multi lasers and lots of error correction because of it. I remember they said these things would not skip, now all they do is skip if not taken care of. Similar to a vinyl record if you put you hands all over them.

At some point all CD's, DVD's, LD's, etc will deteriorate.
The reality is, like anything else, they just don't last
forever. But should last a very very long time.

Some environmental factors will speed up their demise
however. And this may be what you are encountering.
Especially anything in sunny rooms and hot/cold temperature
changes. Also just handling them, bending them slightly
(over and over and over through the years) can eventually
damage them or cause the layers to start to come apart
inside I'd imagine (small enough to not be visible to the
eye).

Laser Discs have been deteriorating faster it seems. They
had a real bad rot problem years ago where they went bad
much faster. It might have been a quality control thing I
don't remember but it did just speed up what was going to
happen eventually anyway.

Remember this stuff is just aluminum sandwiched between
plastic. Which is very durable but can and will deteriorate.
That can also depend on how good the quality of
manufacturing and materials were when it was made. These
days everything is so dang cheap. Made in china to save
every cent they can. Nothing is made to last. The skimp and
take shortcuts on everything. I wouldn't doubt you get bad
CD's from time to time right out of the box.