Did 'House of Cards' get worse, or has it always been this bad?

(This post obviously contains spoilers about the first three seasons of "House of Cards.")Netflix's "House of Cards" kicks off its fourth season on Friday, and it appears the buzz has noticeably cooled. Sure, it's natural for a once-hot show to fizzle over time. But maybe it's also because last season, despite typically strong performances from Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, the show featured unnecessarily complex storylines, deadly boring political shenanigans and questionable subplots that ser...