Absolutely. The low point of towpath condition would have been around 1970 ish. I can remember lengths of the GU and North Stratford near I grew up where the towpath had entirely disappeared right up to the roots of the towpath hedge, and the choice was either to walk through shallow water where the towpath had once been or to divert through the hedge and walk through the adjacent field.
Around 1973 BW started a programme (in our area at least) of sheet piling the edge and dredging the channel, dumping most of the dregings behind the piling. The result was a horrible gloopy soggy mess between the piling and the hedge, which took about a year to dry out, and settled irregularly. But over time this morphed into the towpaths we have today.
My worry now is that this piling is now about 50 years old, and you can already see places where it has rusted through at water level. I can't see the funds being available to repeat the job, but it is going to be needed in some areas in the years ahead.