Do you think the writers of this show are bad or just don't care?

lazy

I think they have the general course of the show mapped out, so what they seem to do is to try to make every episode stretched out with as little as possible in it for job security. A lot of series do this and the viewers just get tired of it and stop watching and it gets cancelled. I think the moralistic mess they always try to get going is kind of stupid. It is weird though that in the last episode Negan almost seems to be being made into a sympathetic psychopath who cares about his people. Looking at Woodbury and the Saviors, both situations were pretty peaceful and stable ... if you call the Guvner's and Negan's reign of terror stable, but in a situation like this ... if there are existential threats all around, it is justifiable to be totalitarian and regimented? How easy is it to have some group that no one knows about from the outside study and find a way to attack. But sad to say that TWD doesn't really seem to scratch the surface of that.

Like the old saying "a fish rots from the head," the head in charge of the fish that is The Walking Dead is Scott Gimple. All the story arcs and character motivations have to be run past him, and he signs off on them. This includes also the lame-brain stuff like Glenn's dumpster dive and the Negan-bash cliffhanger to end season 6. I believe there are probably some writers on this show who are talented with their craft, but when you have a bozo who tells you, "ok, you get to write the episode with Tara wandering around in the woods," or "hey guys, I think that Carol is too much of a bad-ass now, we're going to make her re-examine herself and decide she wants to be alone by herself in a little house out away from the group." I just can't imagine this show would be this moronic if Frank Darabont had been allowed to stay and run things.

Oh I think they care , they are just bad now, stale.