This is reminding me of in 2003/2004 when people would say that Ayu has taken a large decline to people and that she is probably close to retiring because she'd gotten so bad at -insert aspect of her career here- or in general "lately" (at the time).
Perhaps each wave of fans just has to get this off their chests once or twice during their fandom?
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22550 -> from 2004
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45039 -> from 2006