Why do we use so much loo roll?

...Just watching a fascinating programme about W.H.Auden. One of the talking heads said, apropos virtually nothing, that he was made to use just one piece of toilet paper per go, when he was a child.

In fact, I have been meaning to make a similar observation for some time. We used to make do with two pieces of paper (not on a roll in those days - it was in a box). In fact it would have never entered our head to use more. Nowadays I seem to use half a roll. Is it me? Or is it the quality of the paper? The old stuff may have had that annoying shiny surface but at least you knew where you stood with it. You knew you would never put your finger through it - no danger of that.

Sorry if you are eating.