Why do most bands start off strong and then fade?

First album is often the result of a decade of focus and rejection, plenty of time to throw out the filler. Second album is usually the result of a record company saying "that shite was awesome, when you get back from touring that album, write and record something just as awesome in a month's time and we'll release it three weeks later."

Most bands = bands you hear on the radio?

Pavement started off great and actually got better towards the end before realizing it was time to cut it off.

Yo La Tengo continues to put out amazing material with every new album over the past 20 years.

Guided By Voices is the epitome of continued, unrelenting success as far as strong albums go. Every album over the past 20+ years is above average, at least.

Interpol is another example. Their debut is absolutely amazing but the rest of thier works fail to live up to that album IMO

I can't believe those are the examples you came up with for great opening albums, Pearl Jam excepted. But whatever.

Rock is a young man's game. It requires a certain anger, swagger, aggression, and sexuality that seems ridiculous to a 35 year old. Some artists successfully grow older by re-inventing themselves or by simply laying the conflict out for everyone to see, but it's a hard trick to pull. There are some artists who have great late periods, like Neil Young, but mainly people get successful and just get fat and lazy.

But even though the classic example of a band that should've hung it up is the Stones, and they were great up until the early 80s. That's a 20 year run before they became a travelling nostalgia show. That's a hell of a run.

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But even though the classic example of a band that should've hung it up is the Stones, and they were great up until the early 80s.

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Meh. If someone would have told the Glimmer Twins to cut out the filler..."Voodoo Lounge", "Bridges to Babylon", and "A Bigger Bang" would all be excellent. Instead, they are just too damn long. Plenty of great material on all those albums though.

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Do they get creatively lazy after they reach monetary success?

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Spend more time touring once they become a "name" and less time in the studio?

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These two in particular. If young musicians learn anything from the Beatles it should be that creativity flourishes where there are no distractions, i.e.screaming fans, traveling, etc. It's hard to write good stuff in the hotel room.

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Best late coming album I can think of is Aja.

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Exile on Mainstreet is the quintessential late album, but yeah, Aja was really great.

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The beatles were allowed to not tour because they were the fricking beatles

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The Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960. Moulded into a professional act by manager Brian Epstein, the creativity of producer George Martin enhanced their musical potential. They gained popularity in the United Kingdom after their first single, "Love Me Do", became a modest hit in late 1962. They acquired the nickname the "Fab Four" as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the following year, and by early 1964 they had become international stars, leading the "British Invasion" of the United States pop market. The group toured extensively around the world until August 1966, when they performed their final commercial concert. From 1966 on, they produced what many critics consider their finest material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (1968), and Abbey Road (1969).

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They recognized when it was time to stop making money the hard way and start making music.

And it also has to do with your taste. Artists change and you may not change with them. Springsteen I just can't get into his new stuff but his old stuff I love. Muse I loved the first album but after that not so much.
Pearl Jam I still love but that first album I can't even begin to count the number of times I listened to it for a year when it came out.
Certain music means something at a certain time of your life and an artist may sum that up for you in an album.

And someone said it earlier, young struggling guys have something to say and they are usually pissed about it. Once they get successful it's a little harder for them to write sounds with the same feeling and it's just hard in general to keep that level up