TFA was a fine movie. Of all 3 films, it had the least flaws. That isn’t to say it was perfect (Rey winning the final fight was a huge mistake) but it still did its job well:set up the rest of the movies.
Then Rian decided to ignore almost everything it set up for his own interpretation of his own Star Wars universe, and, well, the balance was lost. ROS was just the crash that started with TLJ.
I actually think it started with The Force Awakens as it actively ignores the full contexts of the previous six films in favour of playing to what fans expect to see instead of exploring new ideas and letting characters we know grow in a meaningful way that respects them as people. It went for what was familiar on the surface with the Original Trilogy without doing the neccessary work of understanding the contexts of the trilogy and even the Prequels. The whole movie is retro and staying in the past. The Last Jedi equally has its share of problems but I don’t pin them all on Rian. There are some things but he was really put in a bad spot of either continuing the trend of nostalgia or trying something bolder than what was given in the previous film. The problem is it tries new things without actually understanding context even slightly in key ways but a lot of that is from the poor setup. It’s equally on him not understanding the contexts on things such as the important issue of Luke seeing Anakin as Anakin and not as Darth Vader or why Luke wouldn’t contemplate killing Ben even on instincts. It regresses his growth from Return of the Jedi from a very similar moment that was key to his character development. The Rise of Skywalker on the other just feels like everyone gave up and didn’t care anymore. They just needed an Episode IX to exist and that’s what they made.
It’s sad to see this is what Star Wars has come to. I can definitely see why some fans and newbies alike would love The Force Awakens though. Like George said it’s very much the film certain fans were looking for after the Prequels and equally from a newbies standpoint it has very likeable characters that mask the clear retread of A New Hope. They may never have seen it anyways. So they wouldn’t know until they went back and watched the previous six. In the long run though running away from your story causes more issues than solutions. That’s what ended up happening as they all had a different version of Star Wars than what it meant to George.
Now we’re stuck with a Palpatine being the last one standing and taking the Skywalker name to add to the thought as if it wasn’t enough that a Skywalker last says “Ow!” In the Skywalker Saga. This is very much the anti message of what Star Wars always meant in the first six films.