Am I the only one hoping, and to a degree expecting, that they will start to rapidly plateau?
Games are already incredibly expensive for studios which has to led to some extreme conservatism with development. They can't afford to take risks since the cost of failure has already gotten much too high. Increase the visual quality of games yet another notch and this cost goes even higher with the associated increase in development costs. This is going to lead to decreased innovation and increasingly watered down gaming experiences designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
I've been generally disappointed with how little innovation and experimentation there's been in this generation. There's been some serious stand outs like Demon's Souls, but they were far and few between. Some of the more interesting and cutting edge gaming to be had was on Live Arcade. That's just sad. But if the costs of development continue to rise, this is a trend that's going to become ever more prevalent.