I wonder if the actual good writers in Japan have been scared away from the medium, or are just not very noticeable.
They definitely exist... But think of it this way. If the most popular Mangas are sports mangas... then why aren't the majority of animes sports animes?
I would guess they are less otaku-marketable.
Anime fans don't seem to be the most discerning audience sometimes; they have a tendency to dislike shows that actually try new ideas, and praise shows that give them more of what they already have.
It's like trying to convince your 58-year-old father that there are more bands than just Led Zeppelin.
Signal to noise ratio hasn't really seemed to vary much, to me, since... hell, late nineties? We've got pantsu now, but back then we just straight up had tits free to go with the generally mediocre writing and most derivative character contests. Time's let us filter out a lot of the junk, but the junk's still there, et al.
Most TV/movie media is roughly as stagnant/quality deprived as anime is, possibly even moreso, insofar as I've noticed, though. Sturgeon's not really any more applicable to anime than it is to anything else.
You aren't wrong, old anime was often completely atrocious. TV in America is dying due to the steadily dwindling numbers of watchers, which for some reason has convinced the industry that what they need is more amounts of shittier reality shows, instead of taking the risk and going for a breakout hit due to quality.
Quality may be risky, but mediocrity dooms you to a slow death.
The thing that makes it more difficult to bear is probably just the sheer amount of it hitting me so often.
Does anyone know the numbers of how many anime are produced now yearly compared to previously?