There's no such weak competition in Federer's generation. Federer and his peers doesn't allow old, past prime 30+ years old players winning slams right and left. The torch was forced to pass to Federer's generation after 32 years old Sampras and his peers, because they couldn't compete with the young players in their 20s.
Unlike the CIE, the torch should have been past to the 90s born players a LONG TIME ago. The absence of talent and serious lack of competition is reason why the old(especially Federer) big 3 still dominate the field.
The Torch was not passed from Sampras to Federer.
The torch actually fell of Sampras's hands, the torch was too hot for Agassi to hold, then Kuerten became 1, Safin became 1, Hewitt became 1, then Ferrero became 1, then Roddick also had some weeks at 1 before Federer took control of the hot torch and held the torch freely with no rivals until Baby Bull matured on multiple surfaces.
There were 15 different grand slam champions from Safin's 2000 US open till Gaudio's French Open in 2004, a span of 4 years. Even after Roger took over his finalists varied quite a lot until 07 french open when it stabilized with the Bull as his main competitor.
This is Gaston Gaudio's resume, he has never crossed 4th round ever except that 1 time when he did he took the slam, such was the vacuum.