LL level is wank. Madrid and Barca have no competition.
No competition at the top is nothing new since Barca and RM play 90+ point seasons, Sherlock. Only € 600M+ revenue teams can keep up at that.
Other than that, La Liga teams just don't bother anymore. All teams know they can't keep up with Barca and RM in the league so they don't put in the effort every week. Reaching CL places also isn't much of an incentive. Teams like Villarreal ain't winning it anyway and they know it so why bother there as well? For CL money? Don't think the individual players care much.
Only time they put in the effort is when they host RM / Barca in their stadiums. That's the highlight of the season for their fans so they put in the effort and turn it into a WC final. Look at some of these away results:
Alaves 1 - RM 2
Getafe 0 - RM 1
Rayo 0 - RM 0
Girona 1- RM 1
Real Sociedad 1 - RM 2
Elche 2 - RM 2
Real Sociedad 2 - Barca 1
Sevilla 4 - Barca 1
Rayo 1 - Barca 1
Levante 2 - Barca 3
If they were so poor we or RM would 5-0 them every week. We got outplayed by Villarreal recently 11 vs. 11 and got saved by a first half red card. We should have easily lost to Espanyol if not for 6 Garcia saves including the save of the season.
These teams can do much better when they put in the effort. They just don't bother most of the time.