Often times on various Internet forums you'll hear "My brand new Remington/Winchester/Mossberg/Ithaca/whatever/ is defective right out of the box and I'm sending it back to the dealer/manufacturer". It happens, since even the best maker turns out a lemon now and then. For a while there all I was hearing was how Remington's QC had nosedived.

Generally speaking, is QC today better, worse, or about the same as in years past?

QC is worse as a rule, today than it was 20 or 30 years ago.