Ding Darling - How has it changed over the years?

Has the birding experience at Ding Darling changed over the last 20 or 30 years?
A comment I hear frequently from birders is "The birds were better in the past."
Is that really true? Does anyone have numbers to back this up?

A few years ago I remember reading that Ding Darling had changed it's approach to managing water levels and as a result there were fewer birds. What is the idea there? Has it had a significant impact on the number of birds seen along the drive?

Thanks for any thoughts on this!

Artie Morris responded to me by email and said:
Things really were better in the past but he does not have objective data on it.

Water management was changed to to improve the quality of the environment but what they did was to destroy the place as one of the photographic crown jewels of the NWR system. It has had a huge negative impact."