According to the NY Post (Why Britney Couldn’t Hack It), her VMA performance was beyond the pale, so terrible it defied imagination. They blame it on a lack of professional ethics:

On Saturday, the day before the VMAs, Spears was scheduled to arrive at rehearsal at around 1 p.m. Our spy said, “She didn’t even get to Las Vegas until 4:30 p.m. It was ridiculous . . . The production people at MTV were freaking out . . . Nobody can tell Britney what to do anymore. No one can control her. She is a mess.”

I say that you just need to take a look at her to see she is no longer the bright, young, motivated, sexy pop starlet she was before K-Fed:

We’re hoping her new album is good, but I hear there’s more machine in it than there is Britney…