I've been doing the Times for 50 years or so, and the standard seems to be declining a bit. Perhaps all the good clues have been used? There seem to be more solutions concocted from lots of bits, and one suspects that electronic jiggery pokery is used at times.
there are only so many usable words. Either you re-use an old clue or you come up with something different - which will inevitably be a bit harder, easier, sillier etc, than the others. Which would you prefer, as someone who does crosswords?