From 2010 till 2015 or later, NASA expects a hiatus in manned spaceflights from the US...
After Apollo 17, there were 3 Skylab missions with decreasing interest and then Apollo-Soyuz (nothing new except who was flying) and then a 6 year long gap before STS 1....From 75 till 81, there were 2 missions to Mars, Enterprise gliding and 2 flights to Jupiter and Saturn..Perhaps 1978 was the only year without exciting visual space events (except perhaps 6 new women ascans).
If a year goes by with successful shuttle flights and only a few notice them, does that make a difference with a year without shuttle flights at all?

This time, the problem is that there are not many unmanned missions expected to fill the gap!