The funny thing is, if a consistently "medicore" runner for top collegiate levels consistently runs 3:43-3:45 has a break-out race and runs 3:35, it's all kudos, even if that runner never runs at that level consistently thereafter. So if a runner goes from being not amazing to amazing, everyone is obligated to acknowledge the athlete's ability to perform at a higher level, give him/her praise, and be hopefuly for him all the time (never bash him when he goes back to running 3:43).
However, if a runner is already really great, but then starts having "sub-par" performances, suddenly he's "washed up", even if the runner is having success at the same rate as the runner who was "mediocre" but has a couple break-out races.
Point in case: Merber & Webb
Merber ran 3:35, which is awesome and amazing. The thing is, he will probably get more kudos for his accomplishment than Webb ever will for being the AR holder for 1 mile and ranking in the top 10 (maybe top 5) for the U.S. mens all time best at 800m, 1000m, 1500m, 1 mile, 2 mile, 5000m, and 10000m. It's unfortunate that so many people allow themselves to focus on the negative things they decidedly pick out as opposed to looking at the overall breadth of talent, hard work, and accomplishments a single athlete achieves in his/her lifetime.
But let's insist on calling him washed up because it's such a burden on us to not emphasize his washed-up-ness...we can't afford to let online posters get their hopes up, right?