That seemed to be a trend during that era of TV. The protagonist has a problem, spends the whole season solving that problem, and then discovers that they have created an even bigger problem in the season finale. Repeat until your show about "regular person in a tough situation" slowly turns into "person with barely enough luck to survive kills God"

I think shows that don't have an end in mind always devolve into their purest form

Like Suits, a great example of a show that just went past its life time. It eventually just became people barging into someone's office and yelling at then over something they misinterpreted, usually with some form of "oh here's a gotcha I also was doing stuff behind your back" only for the person they're yelling at to reveal it was either a lie/misinformation or hit them with a gotcha of their own, then they walk down the hall and get yelled at by some temporary character