Well, there is a real artistry to this work, and sometimes you are gifted with an incredible group of people who are at the right point in their careers, have access to the resources and the encouragement and support they need, and are feeding off of each other's creativity to a point that you get the golden years of the parks, like Epcot in the 80s and early 90s, or, from the looks of it, the amazing work done on Tokyo Sea... The problem is, that's not always going to happen, and sometimes you get good artists that aren't supported, or the company has to cut corners, or you have the wrong type of people working together. It's up to management to, a) give a crap, and b) try to figure out how to make this stuff work. I think it's sort of counterproductive to say management doesn't care, but it might be hard to get everyone working together in the sort of synergy you had back in the 80s at Epcot.
As a manager myself, who has been doing this for years, and know all to well it's the people I manage that make or break the company, and my job is really to empower them and then get the heck out of their way... I have to say, it may only take one or two hires, on either side of creative, to spur a new renaissance, as well. You bring someone in with the power and excitement as say Joe Rohde or even someone like Tom Fitzgerald had when he was first starting out, and get them jazzed on a project, it can be infectious. I'd say that's what's missing right now from Disney. It's probably not talent, it's likely not caring, it's just not all clicking and it's going to take some shake ups or new hires to energize the staff.
