It seems like the laziness in this album started with:
Hybrid Theory and Meteora - First direction.
Minutes To Midnight - "let's changed our style."
A Thousand Suns - "let's changed our style again."
Living Things - "Should we mix all our album to one? Anyone has a better idea? No? So let's do it."
I'm not saying they need to change themselves in every album, but when you're starting with laziness you're finishing (or basically not finishing) with laziness.