Popping in here to say that I agree with both you and liliaeth in a way. I find that a lot of the times, things and plot arcs happen to/revolve around Sam, but we almost always see Dean's POV, which makes it seem more like "his" show. I think one of the ways the show is starting to show its age is that they don't bother to switch it up and shown us Dean's actions from Sam's POV. All the seasons start to follow a very predictable pattern when the dynamic between the two leads doesn't change.

And to add to liliaeth's point about Dean "no longer exist[ing[ outside of Sam", I would argue that Dean has always revolved around Sam (and Sam with Dean, and that codependency is why I love their relationship so!). The disappointing part for me this season is that we're not actually seeing much of Sam, either. Instead we're seeing Dean interacting more and more with Ezekiel, a completely new character. Add to that the fact that Ezekiel is pretty flat emotionally, like most other angels, and that Jensen is phoning it in, like I see someone mentioned above, and things just get downright boring :|