Despite my presence here I am not a frequent flyer, however my wife was when we first found this site, and a few workmates were (and some are again).
For many years there, probably starting from the mid 90's for all I know, Qantas knew which side their bread was buttered on. Actually it was probably about when they first started getting Neil Perry to do the 1st-class lounge & 1st-class meals (ie. before everything QF did got a Neil Perry label regardless of how lame it was). Most of the people in here, I suspect, would have been in the category of passenger that Qantas paid attention to; my Platinum status workmates would get 'phone calls from Qantas letting them know if flights were going to be late, or in one case, to check whether there was any problem because they hadn't checked-in yet (I was getting a lift to a Jetstar flight I was taking with him & we we only just got to the airport at the official departure time!!).
The rest of us got just normal average service, probably not as good as the Japanese airlines nor Cathay or Singapore. Not great, but mostly good enough.
But those high-dollar customers were made to feel there was value to them in flying Qantas. In fact one of my workmates thought Qantas actually had the BEST service, because he doesn't like the kow-towing & bowing & fake-appearance-of-servitude that airlines like Singapore (whereas I know others around here think that IS service).
It seems to me that it's now gone. The workmate who was flying internationally about once a week was, last time I talked to him about it, planning on transferring his balance to (I think) Singapore. Qantas seems to have lost focus from the cash-cow.