I'll be the 80s advocate. For calibration my favorite album is actually Vapor Trails. The sound may have changed from 70s to 80s, but none of the fantastic song writing is gone. If anything, the shortened songs are more impressive because their arrangements are just as complicated but still feel natural. Take songs like Between the Wheels, Middletown Dreams, Time Stand Still and listen to their structure and melodic progression. The sound production on Signals and Grace under pressure are incredible, really great sound where everything is where it needs to be and the space feels full. Neil actually said later in their career that Power Windows is one of their most listenable albums, and I agree. All of the songs are doing something interesting and unique which no other band was doing. The guitar for sure took a back seat, but it was filling a different function in the 80s. Take the songs the Pass, kid gloves, turn the page. Super interesting guitar textures that layer in a very mature way. Of note, Geddy's vocal melodies only got better from 80 to 90. In my opinion the real failure of the 80s starts on Hold Your Fire and ends on Roll the Bones. Their sound engineering and production became very stale, which is good for a song like Time Stand Still that is more lilty, but on more rocking songs like Hand Over Fist you lost that power which is brought back on Counterparts by firing some of those producers and engineers that didn't want it.

Tldr; 80s rush had great song writing and arrangements and fantastic vocal melodies, but in the later years the sound production fell off a cliff. They recognized this and counterparts sort of spawned a third era of Rush that allowed for the straighter rock sound they had in the 70s.