I've yet to see the latest episode but I've finally nailed down what has really been bugging me - aside from the writing - about this season.
The show is called Ted Lasso but he's a much more peripheral character in his own show. In previous seasons, he was in it much more, and was a driving force behind so much of what the other characters got up to even when he wasn't actually in those scenes. He's barely interacted with Rebecca at all.
It's like Jason said "ok, I'll do a fourth season but I only want to do be in it half as much". And they said "yes".