To answer the thread - nope, I don't think she has lost her touch.
You know, the perception of what's good and what's bad varies so much among people, that it's almost stupid to say "I think Ayu sucks now" and expect a whole forum to agree with you lol.
I think her voice has definitely gotten worse through the years, and it has reached a stage where she has her "whoa" moments, as rare as those are... and mainly it's just her yelling her way through, which I don't exactly appreciate, unfortunately.
About the stage and costumes... I don't know. Sometimes I feel like we are not giving her enough time to come up with something new. She has already done that with the songs she's singing; take PCDL and this Future Classics for example, many old songs were sung.
Maybe next year or a couple of years later, she's gonna change up her stage or her costumes. Who knows? The future is a mystery.
But... from Concert Tour 2000 to AT 03-04, her stage has remained pretty much the same, yet she always manages to do something different for each concert pre-2005... it feels like ever since AT 05 she has felt satisfied with the stage set-up and has pretty much decided to stick to that for every concert. Maybe it's a good thing, to stick with what is safe and not screw up, than to take a risk and do something that people might dislike - I mean she isn't at the stage of her career where she can afford to experiment or else she's gonna be out of the limelight for a while.
She still surprises us from time to time; the "whoa" moments that she has in her stage set up after 2005 for me are:
alterna ball in 2006
Cross in 2007
Ship in 2008
Marionette set-up in 2008
I won't say she has lost it for thinking of something new for her stage. Maybe she isn't trying hard enough, but at least her staff are coming with something pleasant to view. (:
But what I'm really shocked about is her band... all professional musicians, you mean none of them bothers to tell Ayu "hey you're fking off tune when you sing, take a break for a year and retrain your singing before you come to destroy our ears 75% of the time when you sing"
I'm exaggerating but... I'm just shocked that none of them has told Ayu about her singing problems? Lol maybe they do, but man it looks like nothing much has changed.
And the LOL-est thing is, none of her staff whom she supposedly "trusts", is gonna tell her that touring "longer" is not helping her voice? Maybe she's secretly gonna take vocal lessons at 12am every night, but I doubt that...
Sometimes it feels like her career has reached a point where she's so satisfied with everything that she doesn't need to improve or change anything, however subtle it may be. Maybe she needs a wake-up slap? If I were there, I would gladly give her one.
Finally, I just want to say I still love Ayu very much because many of her songs, old or new, have touched me so much, and she has influenced my life to quite an extent, that she almost is an inspiration to me.
I am also really proud of her effort to continue singing despite losing her hearing in one ear, and that in spite of all of that, she still has her singing moments (You were... TV performances, Rule at MSSL and Kouhaku, Days TV performances, even teddy bear @ CDL 09-10 that so many of us love).
But really, I think she needs to concentrate on improving her vocals... that's like the most important aspect of a singer!
EDIT: Oh about the quality of her songs... I feel that whatever she puts out, there's still that 'Ayu' feel to it, so I'm not too worried. Of course liking a song is based on your personal preferences, so that's hard to judge. I love Days, Rule, Sunrise, You were... and RED LINE very much, and these are all recent songs.