I'd say the two L's are the worst for me:
- Loudness Wars. Everything just sounds so horribly overcompressed, because it is horribly overcompressed. The trend of wanting to make every recording sound "louder" really does tend to ruin all dynamics and turn everything into a big, blaring mess. However, sometimes you run into stuff that bucks this trend. A recent example would be Bruno Mars' latest album "Unorthodox Jukebox"; the production on that one is really nice and organic, plus it has some cracking good songs. Which leads me into the next thing:
- Laziness. Songwriters have gotten lazy. Plain and simple. The promotion wings of major labels are quite simply too fucking good at their jobs. Too many songs with half-assed songwriting make it to radio and onto the charts because the promotion is too effective, and as such songwriters don't really have to make as great an effort to crank out good material once they have this giant machine backing them. Their shit will turn into gold no matter how much they half-ass it.
Runners-up: Songwriting by committee! This is an old one, as old as the hills as it were, and represents a fear in the hearts of major labels. Ever noticed how writing credits for most major songs, no matter how idiotically simplistic, are made up of 6-7 people or more? This is classic too-many-chefs-fuck-up-dinner-for-everyone. This is mainly a greed thing; no matter how tiny a contribution someone makes, people want writing credits since they are the only way to make money off music nowadays. Whitney Houston, one of the best-selling singers of all time, died penniless because she never wrote a single note herself and thus all profits from airplay went into other people's pockets.
The audience themselves: People just don't really seem to care all that much, on the surface of things. But they do care, just not enough. Genuinely good artists like Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake and others are still successful. "Call Me Maybe", probably the most perfect pop song in the last few decades, was still a massive hit. If the general audience gets a serving of actual quality, they still react strongly to it but they still don't seek it out actively despite it being easier than ever. That's a bit sad, but with advances like Spotify and such, this will change over time. The times of crate-digging and zine-reading are long gone, and now everyone can find the perfect music for them with absolute minimal effort.
Sting: Sting hasn't made more albums. Also, not enough "artiste" types have taken his cue and gone off to make "smart" pop music instead of wanky, noodly music-for-musicians arty-farty crap. Sting is a virtuoso and can thus get away with writing super-catchy pop songs in 7/8 because why not!? MORE ARTISTS NEED TO DO THIS!
Overall, I'd say I'm cautiously optimistic. I mean, we still have Gotye, and Sting is still alive so there's plenty of hope.