Innovation in general has always been difficult. Original ideas just don't come around that often. Some very popular games in recent years have been without a shred of originality but they was strikingly good implementations of the ideas they embodied. The same can be said for most films.
2D games especially in the first fifteen years from the Atari VCS to the Sega and nintendo 16-bit systems may seem highly innovative but when you're starting from zero that isn't saying much. Halfway through, in the NES era, truly new ideas were already rare. How many NES games are just Double Dragon variants, Castlevania variants, Super Mario variants, etc.?
The market remains for original ideas and you're welcome to try designing a product if you think you have an idea. It may be hard to get a major publisher's attention but a lot can be done with Flash these days to create a working demo.