With such high expectations from their fans every season, I think Liverpool have to give everything if they don't want to repeat the same bad season next season. Therefore, once they experience a deadlock, everything must be anticipated well and not let it continue.
In the Champions League they will still be a team to be reckoned with and with the depth of their existing squad they can still face other strong teams. It's possible that if they have to meet Real Madrid in the knockout round, it will be a nightmare for them considering that every time they meet against Real Madrid they won't be able to continue to the next round. Arne Slot must really learn how to overcome rivals Liverpool or other strong opponents so that he can achieve maximum results in his debut season.
Expecting a lot from Liverpool made sense until now, but I think it's time to realize that things aren't as good as it used to be. They do not play with some of the great players that they used to have, and that is understandable, plus they lost Klopp, plus Salah is on the edge, maybe he could leave too.
When you think about all those, who are they going to win the league with? Nunez? Of course not, the fact that they finished third with the current squad shows that if this squad is third, next years squad most probably will be much worse and I think it is going to be something that will take a while and I do not think that we are going to see anything change. In the end, they are going to be good one day again, just not seeing that soon.
The fact is as you say and maybe if next season nothing changes all that then Liverpool will not be able to develop further. The depth of their squad decreases every season and the quality of the players is also questionable. Different from his prime when he won the Champions League in 2019 and slowly the players are starting to be replaced. Mohamed Salah is still quite unsure whether he will stay or not, but what is clear is that there is currently no replacement, and besides, his performance is still quite competent in his position.
Darwin Nunez is indeed very funny and he had quite a few opportunities to score goals, but again his finishing was deemed unable to bring Liverpool to a definite victory. Some time ago he returned to Uruguay to play a match, but strangely he scored a hat trick and I asked whether there was a difference in his quality at Liverpool and in Uruguay? Could it be that the language problem was an obstacle for him in adapting to the Liverpool squad, maybe for those who don't know, during several seasons at Liverpool he still couldn't speak English and that certainly hindered him a little from adapting to his colleagues.