Google AdSense publishers have, on the most part, been happy with their earnings and control of their ads. But all that seemed to change a few days ago. I always see threads with individual publishers complaining about earnings, but recently, the threads seem to be endless.
We have two large threads, one at WebmasterWorld and other at Google AdSense Help, let me be clear, there are dozens of threads at other forums and the same forums on the same topic, I am just quoting two of them.
In short, either the reporting is way off and lagging or Google has decided to cut back on how much they are paying AdSense publishers. I suspect it is a reporting issue and not a payment issue.
This seems to have been going on since October 6th or so. Impressions, earnings, eCPM and so on are all down. Personally, I didn't notice nor does everyone, but there is a huge spike in complaints, which implies to me something larger is going on.
So far, there has been no word from an AdSense representative on the issue or lack there of. I do know there were confirmed issues with Google Analytics on October 6th and on the same day, an issue with Google AdWords.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.