You're right. I remember watching my Grandma Put a load of laundry in the 1972 Kenmore DD (I didn't know its model number). She would turn the machine on and water would pour into the machine like a waterfall. She would pour in soap and the put in the clothes or whatever was being washed. After a while, the water would stop and the machine would make a loud, rapid "Chun-Ka Chun-Ka" sound as the White stick thing in the middle which in about 2002 I learned was called an agitator would turn and the laundry would get pulled by it underwater. After seveal minuites, it would stop, the knob would click several times, and a loud growling type noise would begin. After a few minuites, it would stop with a "thunk" and begin making a "whooshing" noise with the sound of filling and then the machine would start shaking. If I opened it during the growling noise, it would stop and go to the whooshing noise when I closed the lid which would stop and start again. I didn't know why until about last year when I learned how Kenmore DD Top-Loaders worked. In 2000, I learned the concept of the Rinse Cycle finally answering the question to why it made the same sounds twice. I still wondered what happened to the water and why the clothes would be stuck to the edges of the basket. Later that same year the lidswitch became shot and the washer would work with the lid opened. There I saw the "High-Pitched growling" noise was the water draining out. The main level bathroom in our house is next to the laundry room and when the growling noise occured there would be a mighty trickling sound inside the wall. I figured it was sucked down the drain through the holes in the bottom of the basket until I learned how Kenmore DDs worked. Then the whooshing noise was incredible. The whole basket spun really fastand pulled the clothes up to the sides of the basket and sprayed them. I felt the clothes were wet as the drain cycle finished up and dry after the spin cycle was done. Unfortunatley in 2002, the machine quit spinning so we bought a new one. It was another Kenmore DD that made basically the same sounds but had a totally different drain sound. It died just last year (2007) and we got a Kenmore Oasis Agitator model. Not only did it make totally different sounds, but my grandma has trouble using it because of the electronic control panel.
Thus ends my life laundry story and rant and I say, you are right about the fact that appliances have gotten more complicated and don't last as long.
