[jerf]

The average may have trended down, but the variance went up, and some of the best episodes are in the later seasons.

I'd suggest looking at episode ratings or something and cherry-picking. It definitely was not some sort of total tanking or anything.

In fact, I'd call it the only case I've ever seen of trying to "bring the band back together" that largely succeeded. Not 100%, no, but they did much better than average.

That said, when the show ended for the last time, I was satisfied.