U.S. PTO Allowance Rate Dramatically Going Down.

I just have seen this chart (plotting the allowance rate of patent applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office over a time axis) on a Blog named Inventive Step operated by Mr Matthew R. Osenga:

Mr Osenga writes:

The PTO insists that there is no mandate to lower the allowance rate; they are simply reporting the number. “We would gladly grant 100 percent if they met [the standards],” says John Doll, commissioner for patents. So, is Commissioner Doll saying that patent application quality has dropped this dramatically in the last five years? On the other hand, the PTO has earlier noted that the lower allowance rate is a result of a focus on internal quality control. The lower allowance rate may be due, in part, to the PTO’s response to the media’s coverage of the issuance of “bad” patents in recent years.

The chart indeed looks quite dramatic. I haven't yet seen such a plot with figures from the EPO but this U.S. chart would be very good for illustrating what in the context of the EPO is called raising the bar. In many jurisdictions, patent applicants are facing a lot more obstacles in obtaining patents as compared with the situation ten years ago. And all such phenomena occour without any alterations of statutory law!