There's clearly always been a divergence in the aftersales 'sales' market. HD themselves, in my limited experience, have always been about the newest bikes and their needs. As your bike got older, they got less and less interested to the point that your business couldn't be accomodated. I remember many years ago I stopped by a dealer to ask a carbing question. The technician had quite literally no idea what I was talking about (I did and solved the problem myself, later) and said "we plug them into the computer nowadays"(?).
That was an Evo, and Twin Cams were only about their 6th year of production.
On the other hand, OEM spares for older bikes have been difficult to source from dealerships for a long time. And as time progressed, those options contracted further. I've never bought an original HD part from a dealer, ever, and source them as NOS or secondhand, or dare I say it, from some nice Chinese chap of communist or nationalist persuasion as a repro.
And my oldest bikes have always come with a 'service, maintain and rebuild yourself' sticker attached, as it should be.