It isn't one way or another. There has always been a group of people who looked down on people who loved Star Wars, who would call us geeks and fanboys. There has always been a group of people who loved the movies enough to be considered hard core fans, and there has always been a group of more casual "those films are cool" fans that make up the bulk of the "masses".

Ever since ANH there has been a growing group of "George Lucas has completely lost his touch". It was small (but it did exist) for ESB, but grew larger with ROTJ and each film since.

It was inevitable. It's like a game of musical chairs. As Lucas plays each segment of his song (or story I guess) there are always going to be fans who are left without a seat. It's just the law of probability.