What really surprises me is that the same people who did the revolutionary Rails years ago came up with rather mediocre products afterwards.

I don't know anybody who is using Basecamp nowadays (and that's their best known product), the same with obscure Highrise and Backpack. Campfire is the only one which is quite popular and well used. But Campfire is just a chat server, really no rocket science and could be substituted by tons of similar services (but I still like it because of the hooks).