A decade? About 25 years overstayed from my standpoint.
Understand that I'm talking mostly about the strip itself here, and not the 12-frames-per-second schmaltzfests that were the Dolly Madison specials. But if you go back and look at the run of strips from about the mid-60's to the early 70's, they were funny and even topical, with a point of view and some sense of commentary. But what I tend to think is that that enormous merchandising empire made Schulzie play it safe, and the strip turnrd into the cartoon equivalent of oatmeal - bland, safe, inoffensive, and boring. The topical commentary just faded and was gone before too long.
You don't need to be topical and have a specific point of view for a strip, of course - lots of strips don't. But if you haven't got something to say, then for God's sake at least be funny. And it wasn't funny - it was an endless parade of kite-eating trees and battles with the Red Baron, sandwiched in between Met Life commercials. Is Charlie Brown finally going to kick the sh*t out of that football? Dunno, but I wouldn't f***ing bet on it!
And so on and so on. Yeah, B&B will fade away, as a product of a particular moment in time, but it was damn funny when it was on, which Peanuts almost never was. Sorry. ;)