Thai Airways food, even economy class, has been consistently good the from 6 flights I've flown with them in the past two months. Good curries with rice :)
Aeroflot, Icelandair, KVM, Lufthansa, Condor, Delta, all of the inflight food was acceptable. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either.
I didn't start flying international flights with meals until very recently (last 4 years), but I've never been dismissive of the meal offerings. If there was some change recently, it seems like it's that the airlines have figured out the best options for foods that are easy to store/move and have acceptable taste. Usually this seems to be rice+meat in sauce or vegetarian pasta with a few side dishes (salad, bread + cheese, etc), and for me this is fine. I don't relish the idea of trying to have a full meal on the tiny seat tray anyways, I'd rather just kill time with a book or sleep
Also I'd like to note that all these meals were included (or free in a way) which probably makes them taste much better.
And on that, a friend of mine recently flew on American Airlines from London to New York and had to buy a meal, which I thought was strange