Couldn't agree more. I run a small website and was ranked within first 10 results for some keywords in the past, because my content is very relevant to the niche and I did a lot of research to write it.

In the recent year or so, I have been pushed to 30+ place and top 10 results are completely useless junk websites that contain all the SEO and keywords, but really, really shallow information. I guess someone used Mechanic Turk or Fiverr to get someone to write about it for $5 and then slapped all the possible SEO stuff and now ranks well and earns money from AdSense.

Or maybe I was just punished because my website does not have AdSense on it...? I hope not.