I can tell you for sure that the Frosty has not changed. The Frosty mix I was delivering up until last year was the same freaking stuff I was putting into the Frosty machine back in the 1980s.
The Chilli was a brilliant idea. The burgers back in the day were always freshly made each day and there were always "three stages of meat" on the grill. Cooked, half-cooked, and raw (just went onto the grill). At some point there would always be a burger or two that were going to be overcooked if you left it on the grill. Rather than throw it out or put into a heater to be served later on the burger got put into a container. These unserved burgers got boiled up and chopped up and consequently into a chilli. Chilli was made daily using the burgers that did not make it off the grill onto a bun the previous day. Brilliant thought by Mr. Thomas back in the day. He figured out a way to always have burgers literally cooked to perfection and put onto a bun. While this would normally lead to waste he was able to make a (for the time) unique menu item from what could have been wasted product. Kid's burgers at the time came from the same pattys. We simply chopped about 1/4 of the burger which went to the next day's chilli meat.
Today they burgers come in two boxes. One is the "regular" and the other is the value version. The value version is not only smaller; but thinner as well. It has essentially become a McDonald's hamburger.
No more sesame seed bun. Back in the day we had these nice steamers over the grill that the buns went along on a conveyor of sorts. The buns were fresh too; not frozen like today.
For the folks talking about A&W. I find their smaller "buddy" burgers to be excellent.
