Just an observation here, it seems to me that the longer any show/game/book series, or whatever goes on, inevitably more fans begin to get more critical and start to dislike it, even when the supposed "Drops" in quality are debatable.
Yeah, I observed myself fandoms always go through a "cynical" phase. Let's just hope the MLP fandom stays away from the next phase, elitism, for as long as possible.
Well, I remember some elitism back at the start, and nowadays I see some "You new fans don't know what you're talking about!", but I've never seen it be very widespread, so I don't think the fandom as a whole has gone through any phase like that.