Data suggests otherwise.
A little digging around shows that in 2005, Gladiator was #152 on the IMDb Top 250 list. Today, it's moved all the way to #46! That's a pretty remarkable move up, and shows the film is only growing in stature over time.

Why do you feel the need to advertise your support for an unpopular apartheid state?

I've always liked gladiator, but I gotta admit that it's not a film that gets better with each viewing. Though the story might have felt fresh at the time, it just sort of comes off as a little bland and mainstream. But I guess everybody loves an underdog story.
commodus was someone that I felt was not only menacing, but had a certain depth as well. This I cannot agree with anymore, he is really pretty 2-dimentional truth be told.
Another thing I've noticed with recent viewings, and this is a big one, is the HORRENDOUS editing in the action scenes. Clips are cut sometimes at the most illogical moment, loads of times theres fast cuts without any real payoff. It's. Actually quite hard to follow, it's as if they substituted lack of film with cutting techniques most of the time. As an example there's the shot when the chariot in the first colloseum fight crashes, if you actually pay attention to the clips that lead to that moment ir makes no sense. They didn't get a good enough shot of it leading up to that moment and substituted it with cutting instead.
another weird example that is when (SPOILER) maximus sticks the dagger into commodus throat. We're first shown the dagger getting pretty close, then there's a cut and the dagger is further away while commodus is just sort of flailing, then another cut and the dagger is really close again. I know this could be done to put emphasis on what's happening, but it's handled so poorly.

It's rock solid. Will go down as one of the greatest films of all time, and it has been considered so for a long time.

I think the movie is still pretty good but the soundtrack is entirely forgettable. Maybe I feel that way because I watched Braveheart a few nights ago before watching Gladiator. Now there is a memorable soundtrack.
DISPLAY thy breasts, my Julia!

People are starting to diss all the scenes that were once popular and loved by everyone when the movie first came out.

I watch 'pre-Social media' movies today and just think about that guy who picked apart A Force Awakens on Huffington Post. Gladiator was release almost two decades ago.
You could make a list of things in this movie for a politically correct media to pick apart today.
-the opening 'great battle' was a slaughter of indigenous people by a conquering army with better technology
-the 'token' magical black guy
-that the team that gets slaughtered in the first match is ALL black people.
-when the senator is arrested, he has his obvious twink with him.
-gratuitous killing of a chained tiger
This is all the typical kind of complaints I'd expect from today's viewers/commentors. Either this movie was really offensive, or 'the mob is fickle' these days.
Either way, I still love this movie.

This movie holds up as great as 2000

Still in the top 250

feel free to follow up with words that back up your statement
this is normally how these things work

How so?

Why not? Just finished watching it less than an hr ago and thought it was excellent (first watched it about 10 years ago)