There is a nice interview with Jean Kerléo in the Business Standard (link no longer working, sorry!) covering various topics, including recent changes in the perfume industry. Kerléo was the house nose for Jean Patou from 1967 until 1998, a period that saw the release of such classics as Sublime and 1000. He is also the founder of the Osmotheque, the living perfume museum in Versailles. On the state of modern perfumery:

Perfume has become a mass product, he says. Fragrances are banal and there is too much choice. Almost every day a new perfume appears on the market. Many are sold for a couple of months and then retired because they've gone out of fashion.

Related reading: a useful article in Osmoz about the Osmotheque. At some point I also had a link, now lost, to a page that explained in some detail the storage methods used at the Osmotheque to conserve fragrances. If I remember correctly, perfumes are stored in metal canisters and argon gas is inserted to prevent any direct contact with oxygen. They are also kept in cold storage, and I wish I could remember the temperature. It was NOT as cold as a home refrigerator, and I believe the humidity is also kept very low. Maybe a wine refrigerator is the best home solution for a true fanatic?