I respectfully disagree. I was only a teen when Phantom Menace came out but I knew immediately while I was watching it that something was off - an overhyped villain with two lines, a movie made with kids in mind that centered around the politics of a trade conflict, the loooooong-assed racing movie, the completely unnecessary garbage plot point of midichlorians - all signs of things to come.
But even before THAT, the books, the comics, the formulaic Saturday morning cartoon shows - none of it had anything like the impact of the original trilogy. I would give a thumbs up to the Dark Forces and Dark Forces II video games, which were really Quake clones but hey, Quake was an awesome game anyway - but, honestly, from about 1987 onwards, it was one disappointment after another.