Apart from general downsizing and a reduction in the number of aircraft types, the RAF of the early 1990s wasn't really that different to the service I'd joined in 1968. For example, the students on the UAS at which I instructed enjoyed a similar way of life to that which I'd experienced 25 years earlier - if anything, their flying training was rather better. But there were few APOs amongst their number....and in equivalent terms, their pay was a fraction of the pay we'd enjoyed as APOs in 1972.
However, after Gulf War 1 it was cut after cut after cut and ever increasing levels of niff-naff and triv until my personal QoL minima were reached 11 years later. It was time to decide FIIQ and to pull the B&Y only 3 years before my NRD - things had dropped to a level which I would no longer tolerate. Interestingly, whilst at Binnsworth I told a DeskO that I was considering PVR-ing and he advised me that he'd be off like a shot in my circumstances - in his opinion the RAF was destroying itself and there was little worth staying in for.
The next 10 years were pretty good though - working on a worthwhile programme for which I was well-qualifed under a boss (ex-mil) who understood leadership and people's needs and who inspired the small, productive team who worked for him. Lots of European travel and no administrivial arguments over reasonable expenses.