Ironically (or maybe not), a lot of our current issues stem from our period of recent success. From what guys like Derek Weir have said, some complacency - and a little incompetence - set in. A lack of succession planning and a feeling that we'd continue to be challenging for top 4 eroded some of the necessary foundations. Not to mention the fact we managed to lose money with win bonuses etc. being too generous.
Like all businesses, it can be difficult to stop the slide.
We were lucky someone like Les stepped up and insisted on revamping the structure and goals of the club. Organizationally, we seem to be much stronger, but we haven't matched that on the pitch. Yet.
You only need to look at the lower leagues in England and Scotland to see many teams who used to play in the top flight are now struggling. The fear of that happening to us, I'm sure, drives some of the short-termism we see in some of the recruitment. I think we are in a better place now than in the last couple of years, but there is certainly room for improvement in the overall balance of homegrown vs recruitment.