i just don't think ayu has released anything very ground-breaking or widely appealing lately
her music videos haven't been the best either and a lot of her lyrical material echoes older material that i'm sure not only fans but most of the japanese audience can recognize immediately~ of course i still love her but i think she needs to release something of higher quality
also, she's getting older and there are a lot of rumors floating around about ayu copying other artists' fashion sense and lyrics... i'm sure that hasn't helped either :/