Downward spiral of Google?

I remember using Google before they were popular, previously using Altavista as my primary search engine.

As of late I have noticed that searches I am performing have less and less relevant content and even after skimming through the "relevant" useless sites (usually blackhat driven) I still can not find relevant pages. I believe this may be the start signal of downfall of Google's empire.

I am looking for alternative search engines now.