I would hesitate to guess many more people are using AI to find useful and productive outcomes. They aren't all writing about it. Whenever someone finds a negative outcome for the AIs, then they will rush to publish it.
Overall, the tech is being used in useful ways. I don't write an article every time it solves performance bugs, writes entire features unassisted, resolves production issues, etc.
>Has AI been getting more useless over the last few years, or has it been getting more useful?
It’s very arguable. Humans have been getting more useless. Maybe it’s a poor trade, we won’t know for a while