No, it was really a technical issue. Analog signals are very prone to noise, and noise is cumulative. Even the best recording heads are going to pick up stray magnetic fields, and of course you get the typical cosmic ray noise hitting the recording tape and head, and then there's noise in power lines that also contribute to the noise.

Basically, what you don't get to hear anymore causes it: Tune an older radio to somewhere between stations. The static exists all the time. If it didn't, it would just be no noise at all, rather than static. Same with older, analog TVs: You see snow and hear static. That's all environmental noise, which will impact analog recording medium. Even the source side of the house gets that noise introduced. That's what Signal-to-noise ratio means: How much signal, vs how much noise exists.

So, dupe of a dupe of a dupe... All recording noise.