I think that Mikey has hit the situation on the head. I have been on this board for a long time and, like with anything that gets bigger and more popular, things changed. For the better, and for the worse.
You can apply the paradigm of more people equaling more problems to pretty much anything. Countries, schools, roads, airsoft.
Unfortunately, airsoft is no longer the strange, underground hobby it used to be, and along with that increased visibility comes exposure and popularity, almost universally for the worse.
To have expected this forum and community to stay 'as good' as it was is unfortunately, an unrealistic fantasy. Again, nothing that gets popular and big is ever as good as it was when it was unknown and small. McDonald's, In-n-Out, hopscotch.
It's not all darkness and emo though, there's new stuff that's good too...I disagree with Hector, I think games have generally gotten better, with a higher skill level as time has gone on. It seems that only the forum has really atrophied, where as games have gotten better. Turnout is better, the camaraderie is there, and the fun is there. I enjoyed the couple of BT games I went to in 2004. I don't think anybody played more than me in 2005. I played a lot in 2006 too. The quality of games has been on an upturn. We have our dry spells, like the summertime, but when it's good, it's good.
Airsoft is still fairly like pizza, with even the bad airsoft still being pretty good.