Sorry to hear that O-D. All part of the steady degeneration of standards as time goes by I suppose.
I collect military buttons and they tell a tale. In my naval section I have a run of admirals' buttons from early Victorian times to the present day. The early Victorian button is quite superb, the example from WW2 is not bad but the present day one is frankly cheap and nasty.
Sounds like RAF officers' uniforms are going down the same path.