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I think Ayumi's had consistent criticism over the last five years that has contributed a lot to her sharp fall in sales:
* Working with producers who don't understand her sound very well.
* Writing songs that don't build on her talent as a songwriter (i.e., low effort songs compared to her work from as recent as NEXT LEVEL or RnRC)
* Under-promoting or not promoting her work
* Not building on her prior work in a meaningful way (i.e., doing what she wants vs. at least taking into consideration what fans want to hear and see)
Until 2010-2011, there were occasional criticisms of her actual work, but now it's an every-release bit. With Ls, people criticized the lackluster album tracks. With PQ, people criticized the amateur sound. With La, people criticized how boring the album was, and why she couldn't at least pick an original title. With Colours, it sounded like a blob of songs put together like a mix CD, no cohesion. With AO, people criticized the staleness of almost every track. Ayumi has also been highly criticized for low effort PVs since 2010. The last PVs she invested any significant work in were the PVs from Love songs and FIVE.
So, I criticize because Ayumi is still not the norm, and she will never be "the norm" of Japanese Pop. She's just not giving it her best these days. And we all know she could do a little more to promote her releases, or maybe take an extra month to work on the next album, or maybe work a little harder to make her tours and CDLs different from each other. But she's been cutting corners for the last several years, and it's had an effect. Just like Koda has cut corners and been hurt by it as well.
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