$ host -t a lancaster.ac.uk
lancaster.ac.uk has address 148.88.65.80
and this is with Cloudflare's: $ host -t a lancaster.ac.uk 1.1.1.1
Using domain server:
Name: 1.1.1.1
Address: 1.1.1.1#53
Aliases:
lancaster.ac.uk has address 148.88.65.80
Looks the same to me.
Consider a sequence with an extreme drop-off: 100, 100, 100, 100, 40. Taking averages of all the numbers, then all but the first, all but the first 2, and so on, yields: 88, 85, 80, 70, 40. That might look like it includes a gradual decline, but clearly there's nothing gradual in the underlying data.