@kowphish said:

How much of this type of feeling among veterans is just simple projection?

I'd say... none. If it were one or two people saying these things, that might be the right call. But there are a lot of people whose opinions I respect and who have no historical tendency to want to agree with each other almost on principle, while not saying exactly the same thing, see current status in a very similar light: great individual play, still able to nail majestic peaks, but as a whole in sort of stand-still mode with some shows in total mail-it-in mode.

I think this is healthy discussion, no haters are we.