Unable to clean certain surfaces; a new phenomenon? [View all]

I've been noticing more often that I encounter certain surfaces/materials that are either more difficult or impossible to clean. Anyone else notice this?

For example, plastics. I just did a teardown and rebuild of some vacuum cleaners, and the plastic parts just did not want to part with their dirt! I go through the various steps, ranging from soaking (in increasingly stronger cleaners) to the various mechanical methods (various brushes, cloths) and each step, after drying, the dirt remains. Only when I manually wipe a surface will the dirt (sometimes) depart. WTH is going on?

Another example, painted metal (presumably some sort of enamel): a Procter-Silex heat plate, used a couple times and now cannot be cleaned. I've gone through what are usually my last resorts (Bar Keeper's Friend, magic erasers) to no avail. WTF? I'm now thinking my only recourse will be to just repaint the damn thing!

Is there some fairly recent trend in materials science that is deliberately sabotaging the efforts of those of us who resist throwing things away and just buying new ones?

Mainly I want to know if anyone else has noticed this. It is slowly but surely driving me mad.