"Don’t you want to earn Schrute bucks?"

The Office is one of the few television shows that is not entirely loathsome. (Others in this select group include Mythbusters and several PBS shows.) Now that it's in syndication I've been occasionally watching older episodes; from this it's evident that the show has changed quite a bit, especially in this past season. The thing we forget is just how unpleasant everything is in the first two seasons or so: the humor derived from the awkwardness of the interactions between characters, more than anything else. This is still true, to an extent, but it seems that the writers have become much more fond of the characters in recent years. The biggest change is the dynamic between Jim & Pam and the environment of the office: earlier, we rooted for them because they were the only two people who had not resigned themselves to a lifetime of drudgery and obscurity. By now they've given in. Is this because they've finally become adults? Or because they can no longer give up a stable source of money? (What's the difference?)