Even sticking to Valve servers, before casual you would sometimes spend hours on the same server with the same people, playing various maps.
Now it's only ever temporary. You might get an occasional rematch, but it's not the same thing and it rarely lasts. You shit out the matches. I do like the increased focus on competitiveness, but the rest of the changes are pretty dubious. I still enjoy it, but being rolled through a multi stage map with half the players the other team has, is also not fun.