We are talking about a very large company with a very broad range of titles (in Japan) with year after year profits.
Don't get me wrong, declining profits suck. Declining profits don't necessarily have anything to do with product quality.
When you look at the 10 and 5 year trends, the Yen is getting stronger and stronger v. USD, Euro, and GBP. Sales numbers were going up, production costs per unit sold were going down. The currency is killing these japanese companies.
It's funny that everyone picks on SE when they are one of the most profitable companies in Japan (Nintendo, then SE if I remember correctly).
If you are talking artistic decline, then that is a matter of opinion. People vote with their money, sales quantity and revenue are up, so I would guess that people like them better. Yen strength is all that holding profits back, but profit is profit (especially in this gaming market at this time and in that country).
http://www.square-enix.com/eng/ir/ar.html
I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it.
