1990osu said:

^^People who say that the less Lucas was involved, the better the movies were. The idea that Gary Kurtz was this genius and he and Marcia Lucas saved SW from being a flop, and Irvin Kirshner and Kurtz were the only reason ESB was good.

Part of that is true, but Lucas was also part of the team and that's where he worked best. When he went off on his own, the supports he relied upon weren't there and the films sucked. Plus, I think Lucas' skills diminished naturally with old age. But I don't think people argued that he was always talentless, just that his collaborations hid or offset the flaws he had. The only reason he collaborated was because he set that environment up in the first place, so it was a deliberate part of his method.