How bad was pre-Crisis 1980's DC?

[Mace Dolex]

Part of the impetus of the Crisis was to get new creative voices going in DC and really shake things up (Byrne on Superman/Action/Adventures, Perez on Wonder Woman, Baron on Flash, etc.). How bad were things from 1980-1985 in the "core" DC universe? I'm not counting the westerns, horror books, etc.; just the super-hero books.

Flash had just suffered through the interminable Trial of Barry Allen.

Wonder Woman's history had become incredibly convoluted.

Green Lantern had become plain-jane.

Superman and Action were suffering from a lack of sales, Worlds Finest wasn't, and DC Comics Presents was unpresentable.

Detective Comics was almost canceled in the late 1970's.

Justice League starred ... Gypsy, Steel and Vibe.

Yeah, they had Moore's Swamp Thing and Wolfman/Perez's New Teen Titans, but that was pretty close to all they had going on in the official universe at that point.

I think it's possible that DC needed an enormous kick-in-the-pants to restart things, as the universe had kind of petered out by then. What do you think?