Is Customer Service Becoming Optional?

I've been noticing more and more that many large companies seem to be taking a rather interesting approach to automation and customer service.  Particularly when you call their customer service numbers in end up working a VRU that seems to be structured to maximize the number hoops you have to hop through before speaking to a person that can assist with the problem.

Multiple redirect to self service for bill pay, technical troubleshooting.
Chronically moving number options. 
Systems that can't accept input while the system is reading its script which seem to be becoming ever longer.

Yes, I prefer automated systems when I can use them, i.e. when I have a problem or issue that they can actually help with. 

Chat doesn't seem much better, I was chatting with my internet provider the other day for a issue with my service.  The chatter first option,  "I'll reset your account"  Me, "No, were _____________________________  too late, reset my internet while I was chatting with them on my internet.

Not once
Not twice
yes, three blanking times before I just posted a rant on their discussion boards.

Not once could I get a trouble ticket number.

I'm sure their free call resolution rates are awesome.

Anybody else noticing this?  Is customer service really becoming a non-issue?

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 until you get a human on the other side. For my ISP I don't even bother unless there's an outage to report.

In my experience, customer service is close to the best its ever been in my life. It used to be that when you called companies they transferred you incessantly. Now they try to resolve your issue in one call.

I'm not saying it's perfect. It never will be.

Tryhttps://gethuman.com/

This reminds of my recent State Farm experience. Those guys are sneaky bastards. I called to complain about the poor response to my claim. I indicated my interest in participating in a survey after my customer service call was over. Sure enough, as soon as the call ended there was no phone survey just dead silence. I called them on the same issue a week later. I again indicated my willingness to participate in a survey. This time time the damn survey was in Spanish only! WTF!