It probably was. We just weren't allowed to see it during any meaningful action.
In FC, they should have been the first in the fight against the Borg but were told to continue exploring gaseous anomalies by the Admiralty because they didn't trust Picard with the Borg presence after Wolf 359. This was an in-universe decision to heighten the dramatic action in the opening.
During DS9, the E-E was completely absent (were they ever even mentioned at any time?) and the only movie that occurred in that timeframe was Insurrection, and they were relegated to diplomatic missions to look for new allies. Picard was forced to wear some funny ribbon thing on his head while Starfleet officers were dying lightyears away. They should have been at the front lines there, as well, cutting Dominion battleships in half. This was a real-world decision by Paramount because they think we're idiots.
Both decisions, both in-universe and IRL were quantifiable mistakes with specious reasoning propping them up.