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They did what many great '80s alt bands did around the tine of Automatic: started sounding ordinary and bored. For other instances of this tendency toward "End-of-80s-Castration" see the Replacements, Husker Du, REM, Dinosaur Jr, etc.
Few bands were able to survive the "rise" of alternative music without turning into ball-less imitations of themselves. Sonic Youth, Fugazi, and (dare I say) the Flaming Lips being the three that come to mind. Many will disagree about the Lips, but it's true. Ignoring their music videos and ill-conceived attempts at commercial success, which lead to a near death by one-hit-wonderdom, the early 90s were actually a great time for them, but mostly because they turned into a completely different band.
But SY and Fugazi (and MBV, for about 18the months) are the only high profile 80s Indie groups that sounded as good or better after the alt "revolution" than they did before without simply becoming radio friendly pop groups.
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