"... Winchester as a company failed us,..."
Actually, I'm of the opinion that we failed them. Winchester's woes can arguably have started after the year that has lived in infamy, 1964. It was during this time period that Winchester came to understand that the buying public were more interested in buying cheaper to make, yet serviceable firearms that were being made by companies like Remington and Savage rather than Winchester's more costly to manufacture Model 70s, Model 94s, Model 12s, etc., with their machined steel parts and hand-checkered stocks. Ergo, in an effort to compete with less expensive to make Remington Model 721/722/700 rifles; Model 870/1100 shotguns and Savage Model 110 rifles (to name a few); post-Model 70s, Model 94s, and Model 1200s were entirely serviceable with their stamped sheet metal parts and impressed "checkered" stocks, but lacked the quality hallmarks that Winchester had taken 100 years or so to achieve.
An overly simplistic analysis to be sure, but there's enough truth to this oft-stated scenario to place much of the blame on the shoulders of shooters and hunters of the time who refused to pony up the necessary money to pay for the hand labor and quality parts it took to make the firearms Winchester's good reputation was based on.