My theory about great carmakers:
It was always a single man who wanted to build the best cars he could imagine. Examples could be Lotus Elan, Ferrari 250 GTO, Jaguar XK120, Bentley 4 1/2 Litre, Lamborghini Miura as results of the vision of Colin Chapman, Enzo Ferrari, Sir William Lyons, Walter Owen Bentley or Ferruccio Lamborghini.
Those men lost control, either due to age of financial crisis.
Others took over, which built different cars, which weren't true Lotus, Ferrari, Jaguar, Bentley, Lamborghini, or whatever.
Even though I adore the past of those carmakers (and I absolutely love everything Jaguar did until 2008 with the exception from X-Type Estate Diesel), I think the true greatness of today is to be found at Pagani. Horacio Pagani did, does, and - hopefully - will built "his" cars.
Regards
X8X8X