Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.
It seems that since Firefox 2 they just kept making changes that didn't seem to really be focused on the user so much as giving the UI designers something to do.
Notable examples include:
* Making the buttons resemble a keyhole for no apparent reason.
* Hiding the forward button.
* Merging the forward and back button dropdown history list into one confusing ambiguous list.
* Adding an unholy orange button at the top.