This is the title of a review by John J. O'Connor in this Sunday's (5/30) New York Times (Arts & Leisure section). I'll quote a couple of key sections below:
... So why do I find myself becoming uneasy about the show? Increasingly, it seems, "Seinfeld" about something, and that something is either painfully obvious, or awkwardly jarring...
... When last seen the distraught suitor <NBC exec> was tumbling into the ocean during a <Greenpeace> protest as a "Jerry" script bobbed on the water's surface nearby. Suddenly "Seinfeld", normally rooted in the most telling of realistic details, decided to go off course. It didn't work...
... This season's next-to-last episode <handicapped parking> came queasily close to sick-joke territory...
...Get back to being about nothing.
It seems to me, that the article echos much of what I've been reading in this group lately. I'm sorry to say that I agree with much of it. I think O'Conner says it all very compactly with that last quote.
I think some of this decline is caused by self consciosness that is brought on by success. I think the success came from an ability to look at their own life experience with _insight_&_creativity_&_humor_. That feeling of being "right on the money" was the natural result. They now seem to me to be in a mode of ticking off a list of subjects that push the P.C. envelope, ticking off a list of human biological functions, and so on. The result, IMO, creativity and humor doesn't go away, but the insight does.