Downhill's a better word.
Also, I think we're just seeing it more for what it truly is and was - a cheesy, gimmicky, memetic, marketing-based kid's show - without the nostalgia goggles on.
BTW, it was only meant to run two or one and a half years, as it was expected that Pokemon would die out after Generation II. Oh how wrong they were. As such, this is why the show is now all stilted dialouge and resetting and retarded Ash never taking out Pokemon that could actually help him like Charizard for his League battles.
The show, past the end of the Orange Islands and Johto, could really be described as a corpse rotting away very slowly. People always complained about the stink, but now it's really smelling.
Noob out.