I know the sheer volume of cricket makes it very hard to remember how things used to be ( and i notice that the most- i rarely watch cricket these days while i avidly watched cricket till 2000 or so. People's recollection of cricket 6-7 years ago is distinctly more blurred) but the bowling standard coupled with juicy pitches made batting quite a hard job till 2001 or so.
By 2001, Walsh and Ambrose were gone ( both were brilliant bowlers right until they retired- they didnt slowly fade) and Wasim,Waqar,Pollock and Donald had started their collective decline ( 3 of the 4 were to retire within the next 2 years).
But before merely 6 years ago, the bowling around the world was fearsome : Saqlain was threatening to turn out almost as good as Warne-Murali, Kumble the old warhorse was still there, Ambrose was his old self, Walsh was aeging like fine wine, Donald was knocking the stumps over, Pollock at his peak, McGrath at his peak, Warne as good as usual, Murali already establishing himself as a spin-bowling great, Srinath-who was better than any Indian pacer since- still chugging along, Wasim and Waqar being at their monstrous best, Mushie still having a little bit of that old magic left, Reon King showing excellent potential, Cairns just hitting his best bowling phase, Akhtar just hitting his groove, Ntini showing excellent potential, Vaas as good as usual and a young man called Mohammed Zahid put the fear of God in Brian Lara. Not to forget Gillespie, who's best phase IMO was in the late 90s. Or DeVilliers, who IMO was a fine exponent of swing bowling. The English attack of Gough-Caddick were not much off Harmison-Hoggard callibre and as such, i beleive that as recently as 5-6 years ago, the bowling standard around the world as impeccable. The only other phase i can think of that would rival such richness in bowling as the 1990s-early 2000s is the 1975-1986/87 period.