Hell, the mid-60s were so bad that even "Major Dundee," Peckinpah's worst film, seemed like the Godfather compared to the tripe that tinseltown was producing.
Television started eating the film industry's lunch during the 1960s. IIRC, in his (auto?)biography Skywalking Lucas says that the 1960s film slump offered a golden opportunity for newcomers like him to break into the film industry.