Interestingly, however, that was also the path of the books. I didn't take it so much as a degradation in writing, but rather a maturation of the main characters. When you're watching or reading something, you're generally only terrified if your characters are terrified. Just like real life veterans, the characters---who can't imagine anything scarier than Orcs when they first saw them---have gradually become inured to the "horror" of the danger and grown more confident, especially as they've seen things far worse than Orcs along the way. It's not like they're free from fear, but it doesn't root them to the ground like it used to. I can say that the progression of reactions I had, from the first firefight I was ever in to the last, pretty much mirrored that. It's not that your heart doesn't still skip a few beats, but having done it before you feel like you know what you're doing and have a fighting chance, and a proactive attitude goes a long way. Of course, the greatest example of that is my absolute favorite part of the books, which had to be left out of the movie: the scouring of the Shire. When the hobbits ride home and are threatened by the thugs who've taken over their town---guys they would have been absolutely terrified of a year before---and laugh at them. I know why that part of the book had to be excised for film, but it killed me. All the "heroes" that they'd looked up to are gone, but they discover that somewhere along the way they've lost the need to be led.
I will agree, though, that I don't find cockney accents to be scary, and the more a monster talks (regardless of accent) the less of a monster it becomes. Of course, just like Hitchcock said, the more you SEE the monster, the less of a monster it becomes. You just can't get away from it. Long before the movies came out, the first book was always my favorite of the three. It's a pure chase story, and I love chases.
