Here's an interesting (if altogether skewed) blog posting on the role of the literary agent in the book writing process.
http://maryww.wordpress.com/2009/04/...-to-stop-them/
There's been a lot of anger in the publishing world over the recent #queryfail on Twitter, which led to the #agentfail responses not long after by unpublished writers. Are we seeing the 10 percenters losing their respect and cache because of the digital age? That's up to you to decide.