Drupal 7 has been released. There are a number of improvements to the system with this release including a new administrative interface, built-in custom content structure (it was a previously a plug-in), improved performance, and an automated testing framework built-in.
For more information, visit the Drupal website: http://drupal.org/drupal-7.0
There are also Drupal release parties on January 7, 2011. http://www.drupal7releaseparty.org/
Looks like that improved Drupal’s usability quite a lot. And new code looks cleaner too.
I agree — Drupal 6 had some major usability issues (learning curve) The new toolbar on top and a cleaner organization of the admin interface is a good improvement.
It still is a monster that requires a full time developer to keep the site going. Forget about handing it of to a average blogger or site owner = aka the client.