Where did it go wrong?

[ZamielVanWeber]

I didn't take my meds in time so I get to enjoy a night of insomnia. That gets me thinking, though.
I look at my copy of 3.0 Deities and Demigods and, in the back, there is a special section with the 3.5 updates. I don't have to look up anything because it is all right there. This seems to me to be going beyond the call of customer service and is part of the reason I enjoy Deities and Demigods (other reasons are I always thought Taiia was cool and I loved the Berserker and Soldier of Light PrCs).
Now I look at Complete Psionic. It finally had badly needed errata printed, but you had to buy the book to see which powers were affected. It had some very unclear sections (like ectopic forms not gaining menu choices), deleted some things entirely (how does a Flayerspawn Psychic augment his mind blast?), randomly nerfed powers (only 1 Astral Construct), broke psionics open with a feat and a power (which could be used in conjunction), and was generally poorly assembled.
I wonder, where did it go wrong? Did Wizards just get lazy toward the end (as I highly suspect) or were they deliberately shuffling people to 4th ed by making 3.5 as disappointing as possible? Maybe there was a critical change in leadership?
I am wondering if people have an positive experiences with 3.0/3.5 products. We often complain about the blatant and often unfixed errors (x6 skillpoints, wha?), but were there good times for anyone else?

[Sian]

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity ... specially when talking D&D

[Psyren]

I blame their utterly foolish update system (FAQs, CustServ, errata, Rules of the Game, Save My Game etc.) They created an easy-to-find, centralized resource to issue rules clarifications (The 3.5 FAQ ) but failed to follow through and give it the weight of law or even to use it properly/consistently - which is what you need for a complex rules-heavy system to work. It's the same way that IRS pronouncements/interpretations are issued from one source, and given considerable weight in tax court cases even without changing the tax code themselves. WotC then actively hamstrung their own FAQ system by codifying that it's impossible for anything except official errata to matter from a rules standpoint.

It's abundantly clear that the designers themselves wanted to be able to fix things. Between Mouseferatu (aka Ari Marmell) trying to fix the Shadowcaster in one forum post, and Mike Mearls trying to fix the Hexblade in another, the designers knew what needed to be done to keep the game healthy. But their own company erected barriers in their path.

[Twurps]

Am I the only one who thought:

I didn't take my meds in time

is where it went wrong?