I've seen people discussing, in multiple threads, issues that, in general, seem to indicate a general feeling that magic, potions, spells, etc are weaker in Skyrim than in previous Elder Scrolls games. Mostly this is attributed to "streamlining" the game by the devs removing a lot of spell effects.

This isn't a thread for complaining about magic, but just wondering if perhaps the changes to the magic system are in part to "rebalance" magic for the particular setting - in The Elder Scrolls lore, while you occasionally see nord mages in the game, Nords and Skyrim are generally not associated with magic, except for the magic of the Dragon Shouts. I wonder if they kept the magic system slightly tamed down, so that it would not eclipse the Shouts system in the game, which is supposed to be the "ultimate" magic of Skyrim, and keep that central to the story.

Super powerful mages might never even feel a need to use their shouts. . .