essentially the majority of the fun creative stuff was over and the dedicated contributors decided to go off site to complete the game within our lifetime.
the democratic survey methods they employed were important for developing good pokemon designs and the overall look and feel of the games, but when it comes to small technical issues it was a beurocratic nightmare.
the pace has picked up a bit. it is still open to pretty much anybody who wants to be involved. the majority of the people working on it are the exact same people who worked on it before.