One day I realized that all my old implements are clearly better built than the new ones. And about at the same time it occurred to me that we aren't ever going to get back to quality machinery unless we change something. So when I can see something of better quality, I buy that one.
Maybe more importantly, for awhile now I've been making an effort to return things that are poor quality. Hit them where it hurts.
All that takes is making sure that both the retailer and I agree about their return policy. It's usually right there on the receipt, so it turns out to be easier than I thought. To my surprise, I haven't had any problems doing that even with fairly high dollar things like appliances. After all, the retailer just wanted to make a sale; he didn't manufacture it.
I don't buy something intending to return it; I expect it to work right so I don't have to. But I surely will bring it back if it doesn't.
It's not perfect, but I don't know of any better way to get the manufacturing world to change.
rScotty