Neil McManus was left wondering if Micheál Donoghue had already brought the Dublin hurlers as far as he could after the Blues' disappointing display against Limerick on Saturday.
The Treaty County can become the first to claim five senior All-Irelands in a row later this year, with few sides getting close to them over the last four seasons.
The Dubs started Saturday's game well at Croke Park and were living with Limerick until shortly before the break when Tom Morrissey's goal, which punished the hosts' failure to clear their lines, seemed to knock the wind out of their sails.
The second half was nothing more than a procession as Limerick stretched their lead out further and further, eventually cantering to an 18-point triumph.
And McManus suggested that there are fundamental issues with the current Dublin panel.
"Dublin look to have regressed," the former Antrim player told the RTÉ GAA Podcast.
"Antrim only have five of the starters from last year's championship team available to them at the minute and Antrim really should have beaten Dublin two weeks ago.
"A really unfortunate error near the end of that game saw a goal drop in and Dublin stole it; Antrim would have been full value for their victory.
"Micheál Donoghue might be thinking, 'have I brought this team as far as they're going to come here?' They have Danny Sutcliffe back, Chris Crummey back, and it didn't make a huge difference.
"I thought Sutcliffe was their best performer against Limerick and unfortunately for Dublin he's their elder statesman. He was covering more ground than anyone else, putting in more of a shift than a lot of the other players.
"Dublin haven't got too many more to add to that group at the minute and I don't think Dublin are developing; they're moving in the wrong direction."
The Metropolitans made it to the All-Ireland quarter-finals last year, their first time getting out of the Leinster round-robin since 2019, but there they were annihilated by Clare.
McManus says that the best years for Dublin hurling in the modern era were under Anthony Daly, whose reign came to an end at the conclusion of the 2014 season.
"The teams that were most impressive from a Dublin point of view over the last decade were those managed by Anthony Daly.
"They were built on physicality, they were getting stuck into teams [and] they weren't letting teams breathe. They were suffocating Kilkenny every time they came up against them, making games almost war-like.
"That's not what we saw on Saturday."
The seventh spot in next year's top division will be the best fourth-place finisher from Division 1 Group A or Group B.
As it stands, Dublin's scoring difference of -28 means that failure to take a point against Galway in round four would leave them needing to put up a huge score on the final day against Westmeath to be in with any chance.
"There's a difference between that top eight or nine teams and the five or six that are coming behind," McManus said.
"It means the one or two teams who don't get into that top seven [Division 1A, 2025] are going to feel a little cut adrift."
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