The first sentence is definitely false. Prescriptive architecture
and descriptive architecture tend to diverge as systems evolve,
and sometimes, even when the system is first developed,
as we will see in some of the upcoming
examples. Conversely, the second sentence is true. By
adding unnecessary elements to the architecture, architectural drift can
transform an otherwise clean architecture into a complex sub-optimal,
and often ugly, architecture. The third sentence is false.
Architectural erosion and architectural drift are, indeed, different phenomena.
But they both result in a less than ideal, and
in some cases, highly degraded architecture. And the fourth
sentence is also false, as we discussed a minute ago.
Just tweaking at the code is very unlikely to
improve the code. Quite the opposite, actually. The best way
to repair a degraded architectural design is to first, understand
the current architecture, and then, try to fix it in
a more principled way.