Although U2 might not be as CONSISTENTLY great as they were in the past, they still are often able to conjur up material that is just as good as anything they've ever done. Moment of Surrender, Every Breaking Wave, Breathe, and The Troubles are a few examples. So I suppose I would disagree in general with the statement "they are just not as good as they were." I also have always felt that the first six songs on ATYCLB are as good as anything they have ever done.
i'm probably one of the bigger lovers/defenders of the 00's of any consistent poster in here, and i love unpopular-for-here songs like Stuck and OOTS. and i agree that MOS, EBW and The Troubles are top-tier U2 songs, and there's a lot of material out there to compete with.
i admire and enjoy craft a great deal, and i love a well-crafted pop song no matter who it's by. for me, pleasure is actually an underrated quality in music amongst people concerned with projecting "taste" or looking to sound credible or informed.
i'll even say that "MMMBop" is a better song than "Smells Like Teen Spirit." it's more essential to *why* people listen to music, and the role it plays in their lives, and throughout their lives.
i think U2 now does craft better than they ever have, and though the quality of his voice has declined, Bono is a better singer (and often lyricist) than he has ever been.
but i admit that there's a "magic" or alchemy that was lost sometime after Zooropa. that was, i think, the tipping point when U2 became "U2." the failure of Pop on many levels i think hurt them more than it should have, and they became people who wrote songs rather than people who expressed emotions via music. some of that is due to becoming "better" in the traditional sense. the transportive quality of AB and JT and, less successfully, in UF and, in its own way, War, is now the exception rather than the rule. i think it's the sound of a band that really writes songs, and does so in spaced apart chunks of time over many years, rather than young men who can do nothing else than write music in a concentrated period of time.
it is all about the songs now, for better and worse.