Show creator Bill Lawrence said, just after the Season 7 "finale" ran, that the show had seen a decline since its peak, in Seasons 3 and 4, and that he wanted to get back to that. I'm not quite sure what he means. Seasons 3 and 4 were the peak of the show, I don't think anybody's going to deny that. But Seasons 3 and 4 had the benefit of having Season 1 and 2 as set-up. In fact, you can argue that Scrubs' decline was caused by killing J.D. and Elliot's relationship as quickly as they did. All the while, Scrubs has managed to keep its goofy, idiosyncratic sense of humor throughout the series, so I think the problem lies within what they have done and what they can no longer go back to.