Lysacek floundered through the entire 2009 season failing to win both of his Grand Prix meets (finishing 3rd in both), failing to advance to the Grand Prix Final, failing to win the US championship (losing to Abbott and finishing 3rd) and failing to win 4CC (losing to Chan). This season he lost the US championship again to Abbott by 25 points. So, no, he clearly wasn't on top for 2 seasons by any stretch of the imagination.
Fair enough. I think Lysacek's philsophy is a little different, he trains to "peak" at big stage competitions late in the season. Evan and Frank stated that the nationals this year wasn't really in their plans, although they did well in the GPF previously. It's hard for most skaters to have great skates in both programs for back to back competitions, they either run out of gas, get burntout, lose mental concentration, miscalculate physical preparation going in, etc. Also most start off a little slow for the season. Not everyone is a Plushenko where they can dominate like 10 straight regular season GP events, or never ever miss a beat.