We have the same symptoms for 2 different configurations:
1) nginx/php-fpm/wordpress (modernize theme)/total cache without cdn:
On a fresh deployment of our website, the first hit appears without styling. When refreshing the page the style is back.
2) nginx/php-fpm/wordpress (modernize theme)/total cache with cdn on amazon cloudfront: every 24h or so a user is reporting that our website displays without stylesheet information.
I looked at nginx logs on our 1) installation, it returns http 200 for css files and browser network (chrome inspect) shows http 200 BUT (failed). It's like if the minifying of the css (and js) took too long and browser gave up waiting for them.
I am not sure the issue on 1) is related to the issue on 2), although symptoms are similar.
On 2), I wonder if it is related with the "Update external files every: 86400 seconds" or Garbage collection interval: 86400 seconds. What happens if we set that value to 0--is it never going to be updated ?
I tried increasing php memory from 128M to 512M without success.
Any ideas ?