I agree the pre- and early-OJ years and the mid-80's were pretty grim. But in terms of how bad I felt personally, I bottomed out two years ago after the last preseason game:
-- Everything Bob says is true now was true then.
-- The Bills braintrust had committed to a no-huddle offense with no no-huddle personnel.
-- With an awful O-line, they cut a starter. Sure Walker sucked, but who replaced him?
-- With the offense a shambles, Dickie fired his O-coordinator.
-- Wasn't our nominal best defensive player (Aaron Schobel) already hurt?
-- And IIRC, wasn't our nominal best offensive player ("Beastmode") suspended at the start of the season?
As bad as they are now, I still think Gailey is better than Jauron as HC, Nix is better than Brandon as GM, the overall staff is better, and the defense is better.
Which is not to say things are good. Just not as bad as they were.