I used to roll my eyes at these “worst episode ever” threads myself, but I now find that they pop up less and less. I would say it started around 16th season. I never believed the show could possibly keep producing another “worst episode ever” but I do think the show is in trouble when even the people who hate it have quit watching it.
I was listening to one of the season 7 commentaries the other day and was slightly blown away when one of the guys mentioned that one of his current assistant directors (I think) mentioned seeing the episode they were commenting on…in JUNIOR HIGH. It made me feel very old, for some reason.
I heard somewhere that one of the writers is younger than Bart would be if he’d aged.