I'm inclined to agree, what I saw when I was getting out of the Corps (2005) was a closeness with the Army that in some ways was a good thing. In other ways, it was bad. Getting "heavier" was one of those things.

Gen Conway: U.S. Marines to "lighten up"

Marine Corps Needs To Be A Lighter, Faster, Force, Commandant Says

Defense Daily, 10/18/07
By Geoff Fein

The Marine Corps will have to go through an "expeditionary filter" to return to being a lighter, hard-hitting force, according to the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

Addressing attendees at the 18th International Seapower Symposium at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., Gen. James Conway said the service is closer to the Army today than it has been in quite a while.

"We have been operating along side them, intertwined with them, really over the last four, arguably, the last five years. That is a good thing, but in some regards it also has its negatives because we have grown heavier than ever before," he said.

http://uscavonpoint.com/blogs/reconstructing_iraq/archive/2007/10/18/6999.aspx