Well, I think they're actually doing it right this year. They're limiting selection on the sale each day, and not going overboard with the sales.
The problem is pretty much everything that goes on deep discounts everybody already has from previous sales. So other than a handful of AAA titles that just recently got released that WON'T get put on sale for any meaningful discount, the sales look craptastic by comparison.
That said, I'm also finding that Amazon, GamersGate and other sites seem to be putting up better sales/prices than steam is currently. And the funny thing is, I'm limiting myself to ONLY titles with steam keys.