It's not that they can't decide so much as they will freely use both tropes depending on what plot development they're talking about.
Ranger Rick (one nature magazine published by the National Wildlife Federation) has had several redesigns due to different artists, and presumably a desire to update with the times. It started out rustic, then became more modern, then simplified for a look more appropriate of a comic book, then made the jump to 3D. The switch from the beautiful modern look of the 80s and 90s to the comic-book look in the early 2000s is a popular choice for when it all went wrong.
Sweet Valley High had a revival of the original series in 2008. They incorporated modern things in the stories like the Internet and cell phones which weren't commonplace when the series began in 1983. They also updated the teen slang and changed a lot of the iconic Sweet Valley landmarks. Many SVH characters received makeovers: most notably, the Wakefield twins shrank to a size 4. The changes didn't attract new readers and it turned off the original fans, prompting the publisher-Random House-to cease publication of the "new" books after book #6.
For those who were never able to obtain copies of the books with the original illustrations, It Got Worse: said versions' printing has been discontinued by their publishers, and online prices are being inflated in response to the newer versions.
