I often wonder where the Marvel U would be now if Jim Shooter hadn't gotten too big for his britches/full of himself/power mad. Would JB have had a longer FF run? I assume yes since JB has said that he was willing to stay on while still doing Superman (please correct me if I'm wrong about this) Would Walt Simonson have stayed a little longer on Thor? Would we have been able to avoid some of the excess of the late 80's early 90's Marvel that eventually led to the company's downfall or was that all inevitable? 

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At that time, I was talking to the editor (Mike Carlin) about stepping away from the art chores on FF and "just" writing the book. I'd even gone so far as to approach JRjr about taking over the penciling.

I'd even gone so far as to approach JRjr about taking over the penciling.
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ARGHHH!!! I need to live in the alternate world where that happened.

I sent a letter to both, telling them that I would be doing Superman, but hoped to continue on FF. Mike responded with a letter wishing me luck, and saying that anything that was good for DC could only be good for the industry as a whole, and therefore good for Marvel.

Shooter responded by disallowing the Jean Grey Returns FF story he had previously fully approved, ordering massive rewrites and redrawing, and even going so far as to get Claremont to do the rewrites.

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It's been noted elsewhere that Marvel went thru an odd period of less-than-ideal "casting" in the late Eighties and early Nineties. People who had found ideal homes on various titles seemed to take "one step to the left" and, while producing work of their highest calibre, not quite finding the same kind of "vibes".