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I've followed Fire Emblem since the mid-00s but lost track of it here and there. If my understanding is correct (and fans correct me if so), the history is as follows.
The series has existed in three "eras":
During it's original run the game was Japanese exclusive. The games seemed promising (Genealogy of the Holy War or Mystery of the Emblem probably being the best) although maybe difficult to play, but sales dwindled to the point that Nintendo / Intelligent Systems booted/forced out the lead game designer, Shouzou Kaga (who went on to make TearRing / Berwick Saga, got sued etc, but faded into obscurity and is retired now). An attempt at a FE N64DD game failed to move the game into the 64bit space, since the product was scrapped.
In the second era, the franchise moved to the Gameboy Advance with Binding Blade. Roy and Marth's appearance in Super Smash Bros (because Intelligent Systems worked on development of the series) generated a lot of international interest HOWEVER, neither of the hero's games got translated or ported except by fans. Instead the following game, Blazing Blade was translated as "Fire Emblem". Ike's games, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, were given international releases and his inclusion in SSB Brawl garnered more interest, but Radiant Dawn wasn't quite the success. This is around the time I got into the series (2008?). Marth's game was remade onto the DS as Shadow Dragon, but the remake of the sequel (Mystery of the Emblem) never made it to international markets. The series was pretty much dead again (maybe the game was still too difficult for the weebs or it wasn't what the international audience wanted). And once again, Nintendo/Intelligent Systems had a stick up their butt about making the games easily available.
Thus entering the third era, with the release of Awakening, was a final attempt, trying to give the franchise one last chance. When it came out I wasn't interested, but there was a huge buzz about it among my friends. To my knowledge, the games had become easier too, infused with even more animu tropes, and eventually I realized that the series was captured by the leftist weebs (specifically the RPG gamers who were into Persona, no fucking clue how that happened, but the Persona crossover could be one)
It's kind of hard to tell where the rot began still. A purist would say booting Shouzou was the beginning of the end. But honestly the second era was quite good. So most likely the decline definitely started with Awakening.