Well that's just not true is it?
None of the 6 teams who will 'definitely' finish above us managed to finish above Leicester this season. Some didn't finish above Southampton, and one was behind West Ham. So why couldn't we do that?
People always had better squads than us. In 2012 we finished above a Liverpool side with Luis Suarez up front. One of the best players in the world finished below a team that was rotating Denis Stacqualursi and Apostollos Vellios.
And we were never 'comfortably better than the rest', I've already used the example of players like Tevez and Mascherano at West Ham, then you've had the likes of Cabaye, Coloccini, Ben Arfa etc at Newcastle and the Villa side that had Barry, Young, Petrov and Milner. The league is not getting better, i watch it with my own eyes every week and the quality has not improved. It's simply that the top sides are no longer in a league of their own because they don't have all the world class players they used to, so it gives the illusion of other teams getting better to catch them up.