User blog comment:Dunmeister/Skyrim Thieves Guild Questline Was Too Off-Topic./@comment-4588723-20120725175015

You have a good point, but I think it was that way by design. Like most of the other factions - the Imperial Legion, College of Winterhold, even the Companions and Dark Brotherhood - the Thieves Guild is fallen from grace, a shadow of the tour de force that it once was back in the Grey Fox days. It's been 200 years since Oblivion Crisis and a little longer since the Nerevarine roamed, and alot of the glamour of glorious heists has been tarnished by harsh reality. Seems like that's kind of the theme of the guild questlines this time around, that Skyrim is a rough place that's been ridden with strife for the last 20+ years, and all the once-respected factions of Tamriel are trying to get back on their feet like everybody else. Probably alot of real-world parallels there, but that's a whole other story.