Dunno, my gut feeling is that the decline started somewhere after Delphi 5.
I haven't really used 6 but my transition from 5 to 7 was a bit crappy. I remember that Delphi 7 added lots of bells and whistles but had more cluttered UI and worse stability than 5.
Most probably because 7 was supposed to be the big entry of Delphi into the web app market, which resulted in a product with felt rushed and half-baked.
Idk, I remember some good things that I was surely missing in 5, and little less in 6. Upgrades were a little bumpy, but after that phase it all felt much better.
I haven't really used 6 but my transition from 5 to 7 was a bit crappy. I remember that Delphi 7 added lots of bells and whistles but had more cluttered UI and worse stability than 5.
Most probably because 7 was supposed to be the big entry of Delphi into the web app market, which resulted in a product with felt rushed and half-baked.