I don't buy the argument that this is all because the Dutch are a bunch of unsophisticated yokels with the subtlety of a pair of clogs. Sure, you do not expect the level of service of a high-end boutique hotel nor the gastronomy of a Michelin-starred restaurant but, pre-covid, KL used to serve perfectly serviceable meals on board on intra-European J. Nothing to write home about but it did the job. What they now serve is truly awful. Similarly, catering in the Crown lounges was admittedly always fairly poor but we have moved to it reaching the revolting stage. Except in the morning, where I might have the odd pastry, I struggle to find anything that I might want to eat in Crown lounges. In that sense, my experience of intra-European J on KL and of Crown lounges largely mirrors that of Mike_Paris: a pronounced degradation on KL. It is not an issue of not being bling-bling. It is an issue of noticeably degrading the quality of the product.

So let us leave the cliches about the Dutch aside and look at the reality of a product downgrade which has nothing to do with the nationality of the airline.

Over the same time period, I do not have the same impression of AF. IF anything, it seems to me that it has tended to improve and my own feeling overall matches that of Mike_Paris.

TBH, if you are flying on AFKL, I find connecting at CDG easier than at AMS. It always seems to take an eternity to walk from one gate to another in AMS and the removal of travelators has made that worse. Distances in CDG seem to me much shorter, even when changing from E to F or vice-versa. Sure, if you are trying to connect from Air Moldova or Pakistan International Airlines to AF or KL, connecting at CDG is not fun but this is largely irrelevant if you are connecting between AF and KL flights.