Yeah, I still know people with Super Nintendos that work perfectly, the same cannot be said for more recent consoles.
Part of that has to do with their complexity, no doubt. Spinning a disc and reading it with a laser means more moving parts and more precision components, which just means there's a lot more that can go wrong with the console.
I don't know about being built to fail on purpose, but it is quite clear that rushing relatively untested products to market is becoming the norm, both on the console/peripheral side and sadly the game side as well. And I would go so far as to say that the companies making these faulty products do so knowing full well it may help spike sales (out of the 120 million PS2's sold 20 million were said to be replacement consoles for a faulty DVD Drive -- or some other component, if anyone knows more help me out here :lol).
I think its within the realm of possibility that companies would actively sabotage their products. I think it more likely that they are faulty due to an increase in complexity and a willing negligence or indifference of a company concerning their product's lifespan. Disposability vs. Sustainability in some respects, more money that way.
