Inflated ratings

I stopped playing chess for a couple of months. Recently I started playing chess again, first on another website then I started playing chess here again and my rapid rating has reached 2000+ on this website. That's the highest that my rapid rating has ever been and I am not sure that I am playing much better than before. I've also noticed that many of my 2000 rated opponents were playing sub par chess (maybe it is a matter of small sample size). I expected 2000 chess to be better than what I have been experiencing so far.

All this lead me to believe that in the couple of months that I wasn't on the website the ratings got inflated, meaning that the same player with the same skill level would get a higher rating today than, let's say, a year ago. I know that recently another chess boom has happened so I thought maybe that chess boom has affected the ratings.

What are your thoughts?

What's your experience? Have you noticed the same thing, that ratings got inflated or is it just me?