I think its just a case of statistical "regression toward the mean." This happens all by itself in any collection of paired data, and does not required an "expalnation."
When Patrick first came on the scene nobody in amateur skating ever had such quick feet and skillful blade work. (I reserve Kurt Browning as a pro).) His perfomances were astonishing -- if only he had a quad!
A couple of season's later -- he had a quad!! Patrick was superman.
Totally agreed with what you said except for the sentence "His performances were astonishing". Nay, his skating skills were astonishing but his performances were "......"
Hah, we have more recent evidence of an "astonishing performance" by Chan (2011 Canadian Nationals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E49QK_Fto5M ) but as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The two things I regret are the slightly excessive arm flailing and the completely generic soundtrack from the Phantom...but I think that is one of the best men's LP's of all time. Many of the quad-giants of the past seemed to labour/muscle through their quads, whereas even the effortlessness of Chan's is remarkable. It is too bad he didn't have a perfect skate of his life to his Aranjuez, which would have been artistically better. I love his SP this year. PChan and Yuzuru Hanyu may turn out to be my favourite male skaters of all time!
I very much agree with your assessment, and jaylee's analysis of Skate Canada. It was a combination of Javier doing better, and Patrick making a few too many mistakes.What we're seeing is escalation in the Men's discipline. Chan came into events with high PCS, three quads across two programs, a smart risk VS. reward jump layout, high levels for his technical elements, and strong rotational discipline on his quads. It's a big advantage over facing a Daisuke Takahashi who is performing a Flying Upright Level 2 spin.
Now, Chan's competitors have incorporated better transitions, multiple quads, and high level non-jump elements into their programs. It's leveled the playing field somewhat. It's also possible that Chan's technical ability may have regressed since he used to be very good at getting in the rotations for his quads.