Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?

When I was a kid, we use to look forward to the Olympics. It was a big deal. The whole family would gather around the TV to watch the events live regardless of timezone. We use to follow the stories of the atheletes and it was constantly the talk of the town.

Nowadays, it kind of feels like Olympics are just annoying. Propaganda fest for authoritarian regimes. No one cares. Heck, some people don’t even know that the Olympics are even happening.

How did it go so wrong?