Have Buyer's Agents become relevant again?

Let's face it, I may be a bit prejudice when it comes to agency law since I believe the right way to practice real estate is to have both the buyer and seller professionally represented by their own agent who should have a fiduciary duty to protect their client's best interests. However it seems that by and large the bulk of home buyers out there have disregarded their own need to have true representation and 100% loyalty when making perhaps, the largest financial investment of their lives. I wondered if maybe the reason that buyers took temporary leave of their senses was because we here in the metro New York area have been in the throes of a hard core "seller's market" for the past 8 years. For those of you who don't know what I mean, I'll try to explain it in plain terms. A "Seller's market" is when there are more buyers willing to purchase then there are houses for sale. Therefore the prices on this limited inventory of houses start to rise due to pent up demand. A "Buyer's market" is when there are more houses available for sale than there are buyers willing to purchase and therefore prices start to fall. In a "Seller's market" buyers become desperate to purchase and sellers hold all the cards. The buyer's ability to analyze and negotiate each home becomes severely diminished since they end up in a mad rush just to place a bid or offer on any home that is minimally acceptable. In a "Seller's market" many homes end up with multiple full price offers and even offers that exceed full price. If the buyer hires a home inspection company to check out all the systems and construction of the home, it is generally done with the understanding that it is for the buyer's knowledge only since sellers rarely renegotiate price in a "seller's market". The seller's attitude is that "if you don't want my house, that's fine since I have multiple back up offers". It becomes easy to see that buyers literally become the "whipping boy" of sellers and their real estate agents in a serious "seller's market". For buyers this is probably the time when they need a dedicated buyer's agent the most. A good Exclusive buyer's agent can prevent hapless buyers from getting raked over the coals and acting from pure emotion instead of a little logic. Unfortunately this is also the time that they are least likely to use one. You see, in a "seller's market" buyers have felt that representation was irrelevant. All buyers wanted was to get to that house as fast as they could and make an offer even if that offer wasn't rooted in reality. Well the times they are a changing............. We are now heading into a "Buyer's market". Hiring a buyer's agent to protect and promote a buyer's best interests should become relevant again. In a "Buyer's market" a good buyer's agent can basically cherry pick an assortment of good homes for their buyer client to look at. The buyer's agent will also be able to carefully analyze all the good and bad qualities of each prospective home from a logical and clear headed point of view. The buyer's agent will also be able to actively negotiate to get their buyer client the lowest possible price and best possible terms. All these abilities will add up to some hefty savings for the buyer who was shrewd enough to hire the right exclusive buyer's agent.