Yeah... I don't know what's going on, but LEDs don't normally wear out or deteriorate.
I work in electronics and I've seen bad LEDs from the factory, but I don't think I've EVER seen an LED die in the field or go dim after some time. And of course, resistors don't go bad or wear out either. (If a resistor is burned-up, something else failed first or it was a bad circuit design.)