mverta said:

There is truly no force in the universe more powerful than the human ability to rationalize.

Have to throw my predictably pessimistic hat into the ring with you, there, Mike. While it's true in a general sense that 90% of everything is crap, and we tend to only remember the good stuff, so the past has a rosy tint, there are other trends, big trends that outweigh all of that.

In my opinion, sometimes studios are risk-averse and sometimes they're not. When they take more risks, they can produce truly great (and also terrible) things. When they feel risk-averse, the best they can usually hope for is decently entertaining. We have been in a risk-averse period for a long, long, LOOOONG time. Not saying good stuff isn't made, but often it happens outside or in spite of the studio system. The last long-lasting "risky" period was the so-called auteur movement, lining up more or less with the seventies. The crap was phenomenally crap, but the good stuff was divine. Nowadays, it's generally by-the-numbers with good execution, or by-the-numbers with poor execution. Bleh.

My wife and I have been complaining about the "Hollywood Writer's Strike" for the last ten years or so, even though we know there sadly isn't one to explain all this.

EDIT: I'd add City of God and Amelie to poita's generally pretty good noughties list (Million Dollar Baby notwithstanding...)