We saw the first efforts to make the brilliant JLI era seem stupid an irrelevant in the mid-90's, after Jurgens' JLA run. Jurgens was actually the one appointed with the task of "making the JLA serious again", but he did it with consequence and respect to Giffen and company. He did it gradually, too, beginning with more action-based stories featuring the same characters and the same personalities, and ending with a completely different League, using Superman's death as the moment when the League changed and making his funeral seem like the JLI's funeral too.
Then it became cool to contrast how "stupid and ridiculous we used to be" and how "cool and extreme we are now": examples from this era are Max Lord turning into the villain Lord Havock, Ice's useless death, and a character as harmless as L-Ron turning into a brutal powerhouse by taking over Despero's body.
With Morrie's JLA the group actually had good stories and didn't have to focus on comparing itself to its past to seem relevant, but that's changed. I think that what we're seeing right now is basically the same thing we saw in the mid-90's, except "cool and extreme" is replaced with "dark and tragic". "Look how stupid and ridiculous we used to be, and how dark and tragic we've become," seems to be the message.
I think DC should start using that "DC COMICZ AINT JUST FO KIDZ, YO!" logo they had in the 80's. That would be approapiate.
