It has definitely slowed down...

For me, it seems to be the lack of staying power that is coming out in the games, rather that the Back Room's quality of reactionary doo doo someone (sometimes myself, just stating not judging) decided to drop that day.

In brief synopsis, Empire Total War, while it made fantastic advances for the game, such as naval battles, technology, etc. severely lacked the character development that marked the earlier titles. The game simply does not give the player the ability to become emotionally immersed in the story, and there for it looses it's long term connect.

I've never played Napoleon, so I cannot judge. But unless you play as Napoleon riding around on a horse picking up traits and stars, I imagine it's a similar fate: a bunch of short stories and no novel.