DuracellEnergizer said: Generally, I like to go with the idea that the Jedi were almost superhumanly powerful prior to the Great Sith War, but became progressively weaker over the centuries and millennia that followed.
Pre-1999 Star Wars definitely gave me the impression that the Jedi slowly dissappeared from public view and declined and the Empire just finished the job. Motti called the Jedi "ancient", which I interpreted as "millenia past their prime."