Octorox said:No offense but I completely despise TheoOdo's idea. The point of the prequels is to show the glory day's of the old republic and how they came to an end. There needs to be a huge but gradual shift in attitude and style from TPM to ANH. To have the Jedi and the Republic already laughable Day 1 does not show that.
In an ideal world we would have seen some of those glory days but that's impossible without reshooting the films from scratch.
Whatever way you cut it the Republic and the Jedi are already on their way out at the beginning of Episode One (possibly after centuries of behind the scenes manipulation by the Sith or just by the sheer weight of the conflicting interests it had to keep in balance).
Sidious exploits a very exploitable situation.
It may be that there never really was a golden age and that it's as mythical as Camelot.
A thousand generations is a long time to build up monumental nostalgia compared against even Galactic peace and democracy could be made to seem dull and disposable.
Like Joni sang, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone".