Just a little story about what a different experience living in an officers mess was in the mid 60s when I first joined. At that time it was common practice for laundry to be done professionally, with dirty washing being collected and sent off, then returned, with the old detached collars we still wore starched to death. Anyway this was all very nice, but expensive, and took quite a chunk out of a pilot officer's salary. A few chaps got together and at a mess meeting proposed that the mess should buy a washing machine, living in officers for the use of. A crusty old wing commander stood up and said he objected to this, as doing their own washing was "denigrating to the status of an officer" Well he was outvoted and we got our machine, but the phrase "denigrating to the status" entered our vocabulary,to be used on any occasion when somebody was acting in a manner deemed inappropriate.
What that old wing commander would think of life in present day messes can only be imagined.