Most of the writers are still there but we lost Doris Egan. MAJOR loss. She was the most interested in the House/Wilson dynamic and wrote some great episodes including:
Failure to Communicate - when House & Stacy were in Baltimore and Michael O'Keefe couldn't talk
House vs. God - the faith healer kid. Probably still my favorite episode
Son of a Coma Guy - with John Larroquette in Atlantic City
Birthmarks - House and Wilson go to John House's funeral
The Social Contract - The patient who can't stop himself from saying every thought that comes into his head. And Wilson's brother is found
Both Sides Now - final episode for S5 - House goes crazy and checks into Mayfield
and the story for House's Head (the bus accident) was her idea.
I don't agree that House has jumped the shark but that might be a question of definition. To me that's when a show runs out of ideas and starts doing stunts to pull in viewers. Fonzie literally jumped a shark on Happy Days. On My Three Sons, Robbie got married and ratings went up (1966). After a couple of years, they started dropping again so Steve got married (1969). The next year, Chip got married during his first year in college. The triplets were the year after that. If the show hadn't ended, Ernie would probably gotten married while he was still in high school.
I agree that House is not as consistently
good brilliant as it was in the first few years. And there have been some stupid episodes. But, beyond the extreme willing suspension of disbelief necessary when watching TV (a doctor who is allowed to treat one patient a week; Tritter being allowed to roam the hospital and read patient files at will; Foreman having the choice of whether House goes back to jail if he goes where he's not allowed
) I haven't seen things I can't fanw@nk myself into believing.
Odette Annabel is the result of nepotism? What did you hear? This is her 4th or 5th TV series. I think the character is kind of lame but that's not her fault.
Charlyne Yi is hysterically funny and it's a great character but she can't act -- as she would be the first to say. She's a stand-up comic. They came to her.
ETA: And by "back to basics" I mean that House is obsessed with the medical problems again.
I agree they blew Huddy but we disagree on what's happened since. Bringing in the first kid - a terrible 'facial expression'-sit com-type actress (and from what I gather from a form of 'nepotism') and now Park
who probably couldn't make it on Big Bang. I don't see 'basics' at all. House has become a eunuch. A smart one.... perhaps. Chase as a TV doctor?? Brilliant!
The writers have done the same thing with House that the writers of NYPD did with Sippowitz - killed the golden goose. But they tend to do that after a long run... they run out of ideas. I don't know the 'internals' but my guess is that some writers left a while back.
But here in Mass I'd probably get in big trouble for stepping on a bird. 
