AR service has gone down, but so has service in the back cabin for a lot of premium airlines.

I flew AR a few times in the very early '90s (JFK-EZE/AEP-BRC) and back. No delays that I can recall. Or maybe a slight delay in the BRC-AEP flight. And again ASU-EZE in the mid 90s. I do remember that AR was very generous in the cold snack (a small but filling dish generously filled with delicious cold roasted meats and some veg) on that flight - something I oddly remember despite too many immemorable BC and FC flights.

Yes, food has deteriorated then (2003 EZE-FTE-REL-AEP-IGR-AEP). Just a skinny ham/cheese sandwich and a round or two of drinks service but that's what you get for economy flights of the same length, even on QF these days. Only delay on that flight not caused by weather (rain at AEP) was a nose gear problem at FTE. Flight delayed 21 hrs (meals, transfer and hotel picked up by AR) as the tool had to be flown down from EZE/AEP (the pilot stated he would not fly the plane unless it was 100%).