They lost their lead writer after borderlands 2. Since then they have tried to replicate what he created instead of just taking it in their own direction. This is where they are making a mistake. They are never going to have a BL2 again (also regardless of how you feel about modding its lengthened the lifespans of BL1/2 tremendously IMHO. And the game in noncompetitive so yeah) so they need to take the story in their own direction and open it back up to modding imho. After that then they can polish the story up and try to capture their own lightning instead what they once had.