treasure have turned out some half-assed licensed stuff this gen, presumably out of financial necessity. but i think their best stuff is as good as it's ever been. gradius v, ikaruga, and astro boy can stand with anything in their catalogue. as can bangaioh, if that counts as this gen. and hajime no ippo and wario world are solid enough.
that leaves the horrendous silpheed 2, and there i hear treasure were only brought in late in development to try and salvage the gameplay. stretch panic was a half-finished experiment that they didn't intend to publish until conspiracy showed interest. and while i won't claim it's a good game, i enjoyed it for what it was. and buster's bad dream, while sort of sketchy and repetitive, toyed with some good ideas that were brought to glorious fruition in astro boy. haven't played dragon drive, but it looks pretty poor.
and come on, even at the height of their genesis pomp treasure released a couple relative stinkers in ronald mcdonald's treasureland and light crusader. i don't think there's been any real decline.
yes, i'm a shameless treasure apologist. but that's not as bad as being a playmore apologist.