Comment by jeffreyrogers

YC gets such great terms (because they invest so early and have great deal flow) that it's hard to see them declining unless the current venture model stops working. It does seem that recent YC batches are less impressive, but IMO that's less due to the quality of person that YC attracts and more that there's less low-hanging fruit. The "software is eating the world" thesis still seems true but now it's a lot harder to compete just on software you often need domain expertise in a complicated field.