What happened to Paul Thomas Anderson?

I thought Magnolia was his last really good human drama. I like how he did it in the spirit of Robert Altman's style of storytelling using a tapestry of loosely connected story-lines and characters and building it up to a salient point that could be interpreted as a resolution or an evolution of the character's story arc.

"There Will be Blood" left me feeling indifferent and empty, especially with the meaningless murder and comedic timing of the music to tap it off. We never got to know Daniel Plainview. We know he doesn't like most people, but his drive to beat the competition and become a tycoon isn't backed up by any humanistic as well as spiritual/religious endeavors that he feels strongly about. He's like Mad Men's Don Draper without the backstory of Dick Whitman. It's interesting watching him work and succeed in the Oil business but it doesn't take us anywhere other than a sequence of time where he brushes off his adopted son and drinks himself to sleep.

If you watch "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" there's a short film called "Meal Ticket" which strongly parallels the story line of TWBB, but you get the gist of the "Meal Ticket" story and the tragedy all wrapped up in less than 20 minutes. I also was left more impacted by what is done and what happens to the main characters.