Like Rattle and Hum and POP before, this is really just part of a natural cycle to take the air out of U2's balloon a little bit. A backlash is inevitable. The public gets tired of U2, a lot of negativity surrounds the band, and their album flops. So they go away for a couple years, come back with a new album, and suddenly everybody realizes they missed U2 and welcome them with open arms. It's happened before, it'll happen again.
That being said, U2 could still have prevented this. NLOTH is a great album, better than it's predacessor. The marketing for this album has been atrocious. I do not think Boots is a good song, but it would've been okay as filler on the album. NOT FOR THE FIRST SINGLE!! And the way they're handling Magnificent... somebody needs fired! Somebody is simply NOT doing their job in the U2 camp.