Welcome to the base.
I believe its a mix of both. Before Looking 4 Myself came out, Usher would release a song, or it would leak and immediately catch fire. But ever since his messy personal life debacle, moving more towards pop and not solidifying his legacy, people stopped caring as much. Not to mention, unlike many of his peers like Beyonce or Kanye West, or further back like Jay Z were able to actively gain a younger audience every era. Usher I feel, hasn't managed to do that since 2010-early 2012.
Now Usher has to work harder to get a song going. Sure we still have cases like I Don't Mind or No Limit, which catch on eventually, but a song like Crash would've easily charted on Billboard Hot 100 in 2012 or prior. His team since he had left his mother as manager, never dealt with that form of management, which is why he recently signed a deal with Scooter Braun.
RCA are definitely to blame here, because they are also at fault for not promoting his music. Usher's team can only do so much if his label aren't going out of their way to distinguish his R&B royalty status.
We often get upset in here because we see the issues and he isn't addressing it like we believe he should. He's 37 yet acting like he's 45. Sure, the amount of promotion he is doing is fairly similar to Looking 4 Myself, but its a different landscape now and he hasn't adapted to the promotion world of 2016.
