I daresay that they've been played out. The fact that they appear in every episode, no matter how menial the scheme, and are inevitably Blasted Off Again is something that shouldn't have been so overused. They could have been a running gag to be used regularly but not every episode, so, while they probably would have gotten irritating, they wouldn't be wasting a chunk of every episode being repetitive (redundant, even).
Of course, they've been ingrained over the last decade, so it would be something of a shock to have them not appear like clockwork every episode... Unfortunate.
They really had potential when Jesse and James first appeared. They were a real threat for a couple of episodes. Now...