Yes Mclaren are the new Williams. The truth is they have been trash since 2000. It's only because of Lewis that they managed to scrape the WDC on 2008, but they have not won the Constructors championship since 1998! They always seem to rely on gimmicks to make their car fast rather than just build a fundamentally fast car, remember the 3rd brake pedal? Octo-exhaust, F-Duct, butterfly rear suspension arms, mosquito nose, U-shape sidepods, horn-wings on the airbox... Now we have 'size zero' design philosophy! Yet none of these things really worked lol. They are a right mess and I don't see it changing anytime soon - although I hope to be proved wrong.
Agree with what you say but I think the f-duct was a simple good innovation that worked... which is why it got quickly copied and prompty banned