Does anyone know why Bea Arthur wanted to leave the show?

I've heard a few reasons: one, she didn't like the way Dorothy was being written. Another popular reason is that she felt it was just time to end it. I also heard that she was upset with the writing in general, because the jokes dealt too much with the current events. So what's the problem with that? The show would not be popular in reruns if no one understood the jokes or they were out-dated, you know? That reason seems like it's from out of left field, though...so I don't know.

Bea Arthur had said that she felt that seven years of success was more than enough and she felt that it was time to quit while the show was ahead.

At first, Bea thought she should feel guilty. But in an interview I saw, she said, "What the hell? We had seven great years and there was no reason to be guilty."

I've also read that the producers pushed the idea of the women running a hotel during the last couple of seasons, but Bea kept vetoing it, because she had already done a hotel series, "Amanda's". Since the ratings really dropped during the final season, the producers decided to go ahead with hotel spinoff anyway, and Bea chose not to do it. I've read the other reasons mentioned above in other places as well.