What I find interesting, and I'm not sure I can articulate this well, is that a lot of the elements people are discussing here were present in the first two seasons of TNG.
One thing that stands out to me is that starting in TNG season 3, and throughout the rest of its run, Voyager and, to a lesser extent, DS9, the shows incorporated a certain juvenile high-school soap opera approach to characterization. Everyone pretty much knew everyone else's business, nothing was off-limits, there were no real mysteries and no interpersonal barriers. There was little complexity or depth. And almost nothing about human behavior that wasn't spelled out and dumbed down.
By contrast, the characters and cultures of the first two seasons of TNG were adults, fully formed, and not immediately open for understanding. Some examples:
Riker, given the power of the Q, is about to turn Data into a human. In later seasons, Data would have let it happen, remarked on what it was like, and ultimately rejected it. Instead, Data immediately told Riker where to stick it.
Similarly, in one very early episode, Picard is seen on the bridge worrying about Riker entering a simulation with Worf - suggesting there was a very real risk that Worf would kill Riker. The way it was played really created a Klingon mystique.
I've often said that TNG seasons 1 and 2 were the worst seasons of Star Trek -- and the last seasons of Star Trek.
