What happened to this series?

I disagree. I find that political stories are more likely to have more mature and relatable characters, at least potentially. I don't think I ever hated any villain as much as I hated Algus, and I consider Ramza to be the most relatable protagonist of the FF series.

Political stories are great, it just needs to be continued. The character arcs stopped prematurely because of the perma-death thing. Remove that for the characters and you have a much better narrative overall.

I think any story has the potential to be great, and while I love intrigue, I can understand why Skyblade could get tired of it. The characters can be unrelatable, despite having motivations, because its not always easy to relate to the motivations of a feudal duke or prince. The stories also lose their realistic footing with their obsession with moral relativism. Most people who lie and rob and kill in the real world aren't doing it to feed their starving children or benefit the public welfare.

I think Tactics avoids this pitfall well enough: the more the nobles keep rationalizing their actions, the more monstruous and inherently evil those actions become, with the key players at the end actually being literally possessed by demons. Modern fantasy is rooted in Romanticism, and it was Goethe who said that rationality/reason has made man more savage than any beast. FFT shows you how.

I also agree with Jiro on permadeath, it really adds nothing to SRPGs and should be removed unless it gets worked into the story to reinforce the plot.

I agree on the story prospective, however perma-death can certainly add something to the game-play. In a lot of SRPGs I end up using characters in a very sacrificial manner, however if they are actually gone for good at some point it now becomes imperative to keep them all alive. (or only dead for a short period of time....)

I can see myself playing the game a lot differently if perma-death was removed. Which is a pitty because I would have liked to see a lot more dialogue out of a lot more characters as the game progressed. Maybe a debilitating injury mechanic?