Big Company Gear Beef

Stratpaulguy, I think you answered it well yourself when you said " They were new and original, if not successful."
Gibson and Fender both came out with some new designs in the 80's and although they were actually well built guitars they sat on store shelves and as we all know the bottom line is sales.
I think both Gibson and Fender concentrate a lot of their marketing around their custom shop and artist series guitars because people seem to want a classic looking instrument.
Also, apart from a few dogs that show up now and then I think the quality of the majority of custom shop instruments is as good or better than it ever has been.
The classics also seem to appeal to a much broader market, regardless of the type of music played.
You can buy a good custom shop model, choose between hundreds of pickup options for different tones and still have a beautiful quality instrument that you could probably pass along to your own kids.
Even other larger companies seem to copy both the Gibson and Fender designs to sell their own product.
Musicians are fickle and while they might jump on the bandwagon of their favorite artist to have the same guitar for awhile if the body design is new and innovative, for the most part we tend to gravitate back to the classic designs once the novelty wears off, and it does.
Years ago I owned a number of EB Music Man EVH models, which to me looked sort of like a cross between a Tele and a LP. I thought they were the future of guitars but they were very limited one trick ponies and I wound up selling them all to go back to a classic design which covers a lot of musical bases.
Although I believe it was strictly a coincidence, based on the instrument he became attached to as a boy, I think Joe was really smart in basing his artist model around an old LP.

One thing I do agree with is that the cost of some of the artist models are way over the top and there should be a limit.

Thanks for chiming in on this guys, and some great points have been made.  I can kind of understand the Big Boys like Fender and Gibson relying on their classic models and custom shop stuff...it's just that even the boutique companies are complacent.  They tend to copy tried and true designs and there is no advancement.  I guess I could use the space program as an example for this.  There use to be competition, and with competition breeds innovation.  With superpowers competing for a place to survive it drives the neccessity to create new and better things.  Well that was in the late 60's...can you imagine our current astronauts going up in the old 60's rockets?  No, even in times of peace and lack of competition NASA still developed many new rockets, shuttles, and stations.  Technology has advanced so much that I really do think we can reinvent the wheel here.  It's just so frustrating that so many companies are relying on the sounds and technologies from the 50's and 60's.  They are great sounds and designs no doubt, and I LOVE my vintage reproduction guitars and amps, but I'm looking for advancement.  They are not the end-all-be-all guitars and certainly have limitations.  What the guy did to develop the Axe-FX was incredible IMO.  Though I would probably not seek out a unit at that price for say a boutique amp of similar value, I can embrace what he is trying to accomplish.  And look how successful and popular that gentleman is becoming, especially given that he is a very small fish in a very large pond.  I would certainly not turn my nose up to the Axe-FX from what I heard especially for recording direct tracks and practicing.