What I mean is that so much of the early seasons revolved around the kids doing hilarious kid antics and the adults trying to keep up with them. But once the kids grew up, did the writers have no idea what to do with them? And was their presence was more of a detriment to the show than anything else?

It didn't help that in later seasons (by about the sixth or seventh season), every joke became too convenient. Every character set up every other character's jokes perfectly every single time in obvious ways. All the joking dialogue was too smooth.

Plus all the children on the show are horrible actors except for Ariel Winter and Sarah Hyland.

Struck me that it relied too heavily on rapid fire one liners. I prefer more plot.