Even the UK flakes seem to have gone downhill now that they are made in Egypt, much to the chagrin of Mr Whippy:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/26/cadbury-fla...

(I just love news items so thoroughly rooted in a country's national habits.)

Kraft ruined Cadbury after their hostile takeover. Fuckers.

They lied to get the deal done and then closed factories, dropped Fairtrade ingredients and dodged paying any tax in the UK as soon as they could.

Dang it, I thought this was just down to the smuggling. That’s a bummer; I remember them being much creamier.

Yeah, that was it! If I were going to sell the rights to use my brand's name in another country I think I'd have to insist that they maintain the quality of the product so as not to damage my brand.

I think it might be deliberate on their part. As in: if they can get away with using shit ingredients in a region, they will.

Bit of both. Hershey owns the license to the Cadbury name in the US, and they use a chocolate formulation that has a slight sour/spoiled/tangy taste. (The idea that they directly add butyric acid is a myth, but something in the process seems to generate it or something similar.)