re: Yoda and the Clone Wars era Jedi Council were really not competent at their jobs at all

They were in the twilight of their era as been confirm by George Lucas.

You want to know how strong the Jedi was normally? Watch the Old Republic trailers.


LINK


The Jedi's use to wear armors. They had different disciplines. Double weilding or double edge light saber was use quite often. They were seperate from the Republic and field their own standing army as needed.

According to Lucas, after the final war between Sith vs Jedi 1000 years before The Prequel.

The Jedi willingly gave up their deadlier skills so that it fall out of use. The Jedi robes that you see a lot was them abandoning armor to appear more friendly, and that they themselves tied themselves to the Republic and answer when before they do what they want when they wanted.


So, yeah they got weaker because they kept sealing up deadly moves or knowledge over the years until what you have left was the bottom rung of a Jedi Order.


Pretty much the Jedi Order best in the Prequel would be Average soldiers during their Old Republic. Only a few exceptional people like Anikian and Yoda could be call excellent compared to the people back then.

The rest were pretty much disposable.