Short version, the Avengers replaced them as the number group in Marvel. To me it all started with that atrocious New X-men run by Grant Morrison, Scarlet Witch depowered most of the mutants leaving around 198 that still jhave powers there were some good moments like Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-men his villains sucked big time but his run was more about the characters and some parts of Ed Brubaker Uncanny X-men but after Messiah Complex it all went downhill after a lot of false attempts of resurrecting Jean Grey and Phoenix crap, it culminated with the introduction of one of the most if not the most annoying X character: Hope. They moved to an island outside of San Francisco which is leftovers of Asteroid M, Wolverine suddenly became the most holier than thou good guy X-men who knew better than everyone especially X-men that have been there from the beginning(another consequence of Marvel overexposing Logan), this lead to Cyclops becoming an unlikeable douche(this was most probably done to please modern comics fans who grew up hating Cyclops and loving Wolverine). They didn't know how to write Emma Frost so they turned her into a tramp, they had Namor join the X-men since Marvel knows he's too much of a jerk to hold his own book. The clashing of Logan and Cyke lead to a Schism where Wolverine went to become headmaster of an school named the Jean Grey Institute of Higher Learning completing his stalker delusion and redhead fetishism, giving us yet another X-book apart from the 50 that were already on shelves. After all this CW show drama came Avengers vs. X-men a poor excuse of an event that was made just to further demonize Cyclops and have the X-men fight the Avengers, this is as far as I went.
A very accurate summary of the last 10 years of X-Men.
They're my favorite super hero team but I had to stop after Messiah Complex. I could just tell which way the wind was blowing and I was right. It got really bad after that storyline. All of your character summaries from Wolverine to Cyclops to Emma Frost are dead on...everything written above is dead on (I may be a bit more forgiving of Morrison's run than you).
recently I could not stand it anymore and just HAD to have my X-Men fix. I jumped back in...a little. I've been getting the two Bendis books, not because I love Bendis-he' OK- but the powers that be naturally let the main characters play in his playground. They're OK so far. But the idea of going back in time to get the original X-Men to come to our time (for what reason, exactly? So young Cyclops can tell old Cyclops, "Hey, stop"?) requires a lot of suspension of disbelief. Not because time travel would never happen, but because the plan itself is so stupid. And it was the brainchild of Beast....one of the "smartest" X-Men!!!!
Agreed! Bendis or Yost are probably the only current writers they have that can help get the mess that is the X corner of the marvel universe readable again short of Claremont. Fraction's stories were tired. boring and loose, My cousin and I were discussing the fact that you have almost 200 mutants on an island and you can't come up with any stories in any of the numerous X-books featuring them! Every book has Cyke or Emma having a say so in something. The only thing I collected regularly was the Kyle and Yost X Force and would check out Wolverine and The Xmen along with the first Uncanny Xforce from the library. I just can't bring myself to buy anything disappointing at today's prices.