It's interesting to me how perceptions have shifted in WoW. I recall back during Burning Crusade that there was a BIG backlash about Illidan being a raid boss. The primary complaint was "Illidan is going to be killed by 25 random people? That's stupid! He's a major lore character and shouldn't die to a faceless mob!" The same complaint cropped up again with Malygos in Wrath. "We're going to kill an ASPECT? 25 normal mortals? How lame." There was respect at the time for the scope and lore of these bosses. These days the latest cries have been "screw the lore, I want it all to be about ME!"

Personally, I think that demeans the lore characters, in this case Deathwing. To allow 10-25 of us to kill this huge world-ending dragon that's been built up to be nigh-invincible and nearly immune to the powers of the Aspects, with no help at all, seems ludicrous. I think Uriul's suggestion of the Aspects "powering" us has merit, but they DO actually help us directly in the Madness fight! Each one gives us a passive and a semi-active buff. It's perhaps just not as obvious as it should be.

Anyway, I find it interesting how player perception has shifted. Perhaps it's shifted because so many more people are able to raid these days.