> Since they ran out of books to show I've perceived a very sharp decline in quality, and they've fallen back on cliffhangers, twists, sex and violence to keep the audience riveted.
It's a subjective thing, but I feel that in the past GoT was a cake where the base was characters, dialogue, and world, topped with an icing of cliffhangers, sex, and subverting audience expectation. Now it feels like a lot of icing with too little cake.
Put differently, yes, those things were always there, but now they are ALL that is there.
Put differently, yes, those things were always there, but now they are ALL that is there.